Unions in Guinea said they were ready to resume negotiations on Wednesday to end a crippling general strike after days of violent clashes around the West African country in which at least 40 people have been killed.
The two-week old industrial action has halted shipments of bauxite from the world’s top exporter — a key source of state revenues — and triggered food shortages in the ocean-side capital, Conakry, as markets stalls and banks remain shuttered.
Union chiefs say President Lansana Conte, a reclusive, chain-smoking diabetic in his 70s, is unfit to rule and are demanding he step aside. Late on Tuesday Conte’s wife, Henriette, persuaded unions to resume talks with the government.
”We’re prepared to come to the negotiating table at whatever level necessary provided that we find fresh solutions to get us out of this crisis,” Confederation of Guinean Workers head Rabiatou Sira Diallo told a local private radio station.
Union leaders had said they could no longer negotiate after soldiers and police opened fire on unarmed protesters on Monday, the bloodiest day of the strike so far, and security forces went from house to house rounding up union supporters.
Hospital and morgue officials said at least 33 people were killed in the capital and more than 150 injured. Violent clashes with the police and army had already killed eight people around the former French colony in previous days.
Security remained tight around Conakry on Wednesday, a sprawling city of low-rise concrete blocks and tin-roofed shacks, but more people ventured onto the streets after a call for calm while negotiations went ahead.
Some youths gathered on street corners said they were ready to protest if talks failed but other residents said Conte’s departure seemed less likely than ever after Monday’s violent repression.
”It’s the government that has won this strike,” said one restaurant worker dejectedly, asking not to be named.
International condemnation
Conte’s clan-based rule has been founded on the support of the military since he seized power in a military coup in 1984, and he has shown no signs of willingness to take a back seat.
Diplomats doubt appointing a new prime minister would do much to solve the political crisis as long as the ruling family and its allies continue to meddle in government affairs.
They say the security forces’ handling of the situation marks a major step backwards for Guinea, particularly coming just a month after the European Union resumed aid payments in return for progress on democratic reforms.
European Commission aid chief Louis Michel called for all sides to respect the rule of law and urged dialogue.
The United Nations and African Union have criticised the authorities’ use of force, but few foreign powers appear ready to get involved in what is largely seen as an internal affair.
West African heads of state agreed at a meeting of regional bloc Ecowas late last week to send a high-level commission to Guinea to push for negotiations, but one diplomat said there seemed to have been little progress.
”There was a lot of division among member states about whether it was right for Ecowas to interfere. Even those who were willing to take part in a mediation were questioning whether it would be counterproductive to talk to Conte,” he said. — Reuters