Protests in Guinea Due to Constitutional Changes
Photo source: Al Jazeera
By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront
Since 2019,
a series of protests broke out against the rule of Alpha Conde. Amnesty believed that at least fifty
people were killed and two hundred others were injured during protests against Conde
between October 2019 and July 2020. The opposition had different figures and said that more than ninety
people had been killed in the crackdown, a figure rejected by the
government. Human Rights Watch had called for
investigations into killings.
In
Guinea, Conde’s party, Rally of the Guinean people, had frequently banned protests
over the course of time, due to public security threats. The constitutional
changes were for Conde’s third term as president. Under Guinea's constitution, newly
adopted in 2010, presidents are limited to two five-year terms. A provision of
the constitution also forbids changing or amending "the number or duration
of the mandates". Because of this provision, the only legal way to get
around the presidential term limitation is to call for a referendum on the
adoption of a new constitution
to replace the current one, something which Conde was eyeing for, all along.
The National
Front for the Defense of the Constitution (Le Front national de la defense de
la Constitution, FNDC), a coalition of nongovernmental groups and opposition
parties had boycotted the consultation process, and with the result, several of
them had been arrested.
Before their
arrests, they had chanted the Susu
phrase for “this will not happen”, the slogan of the protest movement, and burnt car tyres. Many wore red T-shirts, armbands, hats and bandanas – the colour of
the opposition coalition.
A lawyer for
those arrested told Human Rights Watch they were able to meet the detained men
briefly in October 2019, at police headquarters, but they did not have access
to them after they were moved to the barracks of the elite security force unit
the Mobile Intervention and Security Force (Compagnie mobile d’intervention et
de securite, CMIS), and the headquarters of Guinea’s intelligence services. The
men were brought before a court, and imprisoned in Guinea’s central prison.
Social media
footage during October 2019 showed police officers using batons to beat two
protestors and, in one case, paraded him while pretending to slit his throat.
Human Rights Watch has documented at length the police and gendarmes use of firearms
and excessive use of lethal force, when policing past protests, as well as beating
of protestors, corruption, and other forms of criminality.
Nadia Nahman, the chief of staff for opposition leader Cellou
Dalein Diallo, said: “Alpha Condé is ready to walk on the bodies of Guineans to
take a third term. Killing one’s compatriots to satisfy one’s disproportionate
obsession with power is inhuman and despicable.”
But, Guinea’s
government justified the arrests, on the grounds that FDNC leadership did not
notify the government of the demonstrations. President Conde had given a
statement on October 2019 that he was committed to right to protests but organisers
should “inform and involve” the authorities so that “an itinerary is defined and
appropriate security measures are taken to secure the demonstration.”
However, this statement turned out as a rhetoric because since July 2018, no protests
had been allowed even with prior notification.
According to
an article in Human Rights Watch: ‘instead of working with the FNDC and other
nongovernmental or opposition groups to facilitate the right to protest,
security forces have over the past year arrested those who defy protest bans
and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators.’
At the same
time, Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch, commented that
banning protests denies political parties and other groups a legitimate way to
express their opposition to, or support for, the government’s plans and
policies.
Due to these
shortcomings and multiple interpretations, Guinea’s government, should instead
work with political parties and other groups to develop public criteria to
guide local authorities in determining whether protests should go ahead. The
criteria should include a process for evaluating the security threat posed by a
planned protest.
Street
protests have long been used in Guinea to express opposition to government
policies. In 2006 and 2007, trade unions and other groups organised nationwide
strikes against poor governance and economic deterioration under the
then-president, Lansana Conté. Although, security forces on multiple occasions
fired at unarmed protestors, leaving scores dead. In 2009, opposition parties
and other groups organised a peaceful protest against an attempt by the
then-president and junta leader, Dadis Camara, to run in presidential
elections. Security forces again opened fire on protestors, killing
more than one hundred fifty.
Despite
Conde’s brutal crackdown measures, his supporters believe that he brought
significant new changes, following the 2010 elections, by improving respect for
freedom of assembly and the professionalisation of the security forces, notably
by ensuring that gendarmes and police, not the army, carrying out security
operations. It is believed by some Guineans that the 2015 law on the
maintenance of public order also improved civilian oversight of the
response of the security forces to demonstrations.
In the coming time, around ninety percent
of the Guineans boycotted the constitutional referendum in March 2020. But, new
controversies emerged in September 2020, when Conde made combative campaign
speeches, some in his native Malinke language, saying in one that “this is not
just an election. It’s as if we were at war.” Diallo, who was from the larger
Fulani community, had accused Conde of exploiting ethnic divisions.
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