Commentary

By Beatrice Hongo

CONAKRY, January 5, 2008 – Protesters burned tires and built barricades in the streets of the Guinean capital Conakry after President Lansana Conte dismissed his information minister, in an apparent snub to a consensus prime minister.

A presidential decree on Thursday replaced government spokesman Justin Morel Junior a day after he read a statement on state television from Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate which called a New Year’s address by the reclusive Conte a “hoax”.

Conte’s address had criticized Kouyate’s track record on fighting corruption and tackling inflation since he was appointed last year to defuse anti-government riots which left more than 100 protesters dead in the West African country.

The prime minister’s statement said the presidential address was drafted by “certain elements opposed to change”, in the latest sign of a rift between the premier and entrenched ruling cliques.

Reaffirmed confidence

Kouyate said he had discussed the address with Conte, who had reaffirmed his confidence in the prime minister.

However, the head of the state news agency Issa Conde told Reuters he had received the presidential address directly from the presidency press office.

“Mr Issa Conde, previously director of the Guinean Press Agency, is named minister of Communication and New Technologies, replacing Mr. Justin Morel Junior,” read Thursday’s decree.

A police source said Kouyate had been urgently summoned to the presidential palace on Wednesday after his statement was broadcast.

Junior’s dismissal appeared to be an affront to the authority of Kouyate, who has the right to name and dismiss members of his cabinet under the terms of the deal to end last year’s political disturbances in the world’s largest bauxite exporter.

“If Kouyate did not give his agreement to dismiss Junior, he finds himself with his back to the wall,” said political analyst Madani Dia. “It would mark a precedent in his relations with Conte and his only option would be to resign.”

In a previous blow to Kouyate’s authority, a December 5 presidential decree reassigned control of government business to Presidency Secretary-General Sam Mamadi Soumah, a close ally of the veteran Conte who has ruled Guinea with an iron fist since seizing power in a military coup in 1984.

Witnesses in Conakry saw black smoke rising over one district of the coastal city, while shops in the main Madina market pulled down their shutters. Youths prowled the streets brandishing stones and pieces of wood.

“We are not going to accept this decree,” said one demonstrator. “The president does not have the right to dismiss a minister without consulting the prime minister.”

Elsewhere in the Horn of Africa, Somali President Abdillahi Yusuf has flown to Ethiopia for medical reasons, a month after suffering from a chest illness that sparked a health scare.

The official said Yusuf left Somalia on Thursday. The 73-year-old is a long-surviving liver transplant patient and has for years gone abroad for specialized treatment.

“The president was flown to Addis Ababa for medical reasons. He was well dressed and he got on the plane by himself. He was not very ill,” said the official, who declined to be named. “If his condition gets serious, he will be flown to Nairobi where his doctor is staying.”

Ethiopian officials confirmed Yusuf’s arrival. The president flew to neighboring Kenya last month where he received treatment for a chest illness. He dismissed reports he was close to death.

Aides had attributed the illness to the stress of politics in the Horn of Africa country, where a clan row has prevented Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein’s attempts to form a cabinet.

Saying their clans had been snubbed, five ministers quit Hussein’s cabinet in December, forcing him to return to the drawing board. The government official said a new cabinet was expected to be named at the weekend.

“I understand Yusuf approved the prime minister’s government and Hussein is expected to announce the nomination of his government on Saturday.”

Besides the political infighting, Yusuf’s administration faces a persistent insurgency in Mogadishu, where government soldiers and their Ethiopian military allies are battling Islamist insurgents.

In Goma, Congo, intense fighting between government and militia forces in eastern region has led to a surge in rape by fighters from all sides, women and doctors say.

Renewed hostilities between the army and troops loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda have stoked a volatile crucible of violence in Congo’s North Kivu province, where traditional Mai Mai fighters and Rwandan Hutu militia also roam. “I was leaving the market and I ran into FDLR on the road. They robbed me of everything and then four men raped me,” Francoise Mwamasirika, a 45-year-old mother said of Rwandan Hutu rebels who include leaders of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide against Tutsis.

Mwamasirika was stunned and barely able to speak when she arrived at a hospital in the South Kivu town of Minova.

“I won’t go back,” she said.

Sexual violence has escalated as hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee the safety of their homes — around 400,000 people since August, when Nkunda quit a peace deal, bringing North Kivu’s displaced population to 800,000.

Congo ’s government has called a peace summit for Sunday, but there is little optimism the chronic fighting will end soon.

Christophe Kimona, a surgeon at Goma’s Heal Africa hospital, repairs the torn and damaged genitals of rape victims

“The number of women we are seeing who have been raped is going up. We see an average of three or four rapes each day,” Kimona said.

Source: REUTERS