By Alpha Abu
Lawyers in neighbouring Guinea are on a two-week strike action that began on Tuesday 16th July, in protest over what they say are the arbitrary arrests of people in the country by the security forces.
There are no clear indications as to the number of arrests in question but the strike comes at a time of the arrest and detention of Civil Society leaders Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah, allegedly by heavily armed hooded men in military fatigues and civilian clothes.
Sylla is Co-ordinator of the pro-democracy National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC) which has since the July 10 ,2024 arrest of the two men, issued a statement describing the action by the soldiers as a ‘’kidnapping’’. Bah is FNDC head of mobilisation.
There have also been reported cases of arrest of other people by the military government of Colonel Mamadou Doumbouya who toppled the embattled government of President Alpha Conde in September 2021.
The FNDC has been in the forefront in calling for a return to democratic civilian rule despite the Junta banning the organisation in 2022. The military has not given any limit to its transition period before a return to civilian rule.
At present the people are closely following the ongoing trials of people accused of involvement in the infamous 2009 Stadium massacre of some 157 protesting civilians by Junta troops of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara. The trials in which Camara is one of the main accused, are scheduled to end on the 31st of this July.
This is not the first time Guinean lawyers are embarking on a strike. In 2009 they boycotted the courtroom for a few days following an alleged beating with guns of an Attorney- Joachim Gbilimou by the security forces, after he questioned why he was being stopped as he drove home.
The lawyers had at the time demanded condemnation of the action of the soldiers from the then ruling military council led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara who had in December 2008 seized power, following the death of long-serving President Lansana Conte. Also in 2007, another lawyer Mohamed Lamine Doumbia was detained and subjected to rough treatment in the hands of the security forces.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (22/07/24)
