Guinea coup leaders seek to tighten grip on power after toppling president

Guinea’s new military leaders sought to tighten their grip on power after overthrowing President Alpha Conde, ordering the soldiers from his presidential guard to now join the junta forces and barring government officials from leaving the country. After putting the West African nation back under military rule for the first time in over a decade, the junta already had dissolved the National Assembly and the country’s constitution. On Monday, regional military commanders replaced Guinea’s governors as the junta solidified its hold on power. Junta leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya said the new military regime would not pursue vendettas against political enemies, though he also instructed the officials he’d summoned from Conde’s deposed government to turn over their passports immediately. “There will be no spirit of hatred or revenge. There will be no witch hunt,” said Doumbouya, addressing officials in a red beret and dark sunglasses beside a throng of armed soldiers. Doumbouya, with an eye to the mining industry that is the backbone of the economy, also said “activities in the country are continuing as normal”. Guinea will “uphold all its undertakings (and) mining agreements,” he promised, stressing “its commitment to give favourable treatment to foreign investment in the country”. The military junta has refused to issue a timeline for releasing Conde, saying the 83-year-old deposed leader still had access to medical care and his doctors. Some of Guinea’s strongest allies have condemned the coup. Both the African Union and West Africa’s regional bloc have threatened sanctions. Embassy in Guinea urges Chinese to stay alert after apparent coup China and Russia joined the United Nations and the US in condemning the coup. “China opposes coup attempts to seize power and calls for the immediate release of President Conde,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing on Monday. “We hope all parties can be cool headed and exercise restraint, keep in mind the fundamental interests of the nation and people, address the relevant issue through dialogue and consultation and safeguard peace and stability in the country.” Guinea is the world’s second-biggest producer of the raw material that is refined into alumina, a substance used to make aluminium metal, and is the top supplier to China. Conde’s removal by force Sunday came after the president sought and won a controversial third term in office last year, saying the term limits did not apply to him. While the political opposition and the junta both sought his ouster, it remained unclear Monday how united the two would be going forward. In its first comments since the coup, the long-time opposition National Alliance for Change and Democracy party said Sunday’s government overthrow “carries the hope of a new beginning for our nation.” The party said it would support the junta “in the effort to build a peaceful democracy” but also encouraged the military rulers to rapidly establish the rule of law. It also remained unknown Monday how much support the junta leader had within the larger military. As the commander of the army’s special forces unit he directed elite soldiers but it was still possible that others who remained loyal to the ousted president could mount a countercoup in the coming hours or days. In announcing the coup on state television, Doumbouya cast himself as a patriot of Guinea, which he said remained poor despite decades of independence from its former coloniser, France. Observers, though, say the tensions between Guinea’s president and the army colonel stem from a recent proposal to cut some military salaries. “We will no longer entrust politics to one man. We will entrust it to the people,” he said, draped in a Guinean flag with about a half-dozen other soldiers flanked at his side. Doumbouya is a career officer in his early forties who earned a master’s degree in defence and industrial dynamics at Paris’s Pantheon-Assas University. He trained at France’s Ecole de Guerre military academy and was a member of the fabled Foreign Legion. Sunday’s coup was a dramatic setback for Guinea, where many had hoped the country had turned the page on military power grabs. Conde’s 2010 election victory – the country’s first democratic vote ever – was supposed to be a fresh start after decades of corrupt, authoritarian rule and political turmoil. In the years since, though, opponents said Conde, too, failed to improve the lives of Guineans, most of whom live in poverty despite the country’s vast mineral riches of bauxite and gold. The year after Conde’s first election he narrowly survived an assassination attempt when gunmen surrounded his home overnight and pounded his bedroom with rockets. Rocket-propelled grenades landed inside the compound and one of his bodyguards was killed. Violent street demonstrations broke out last year after Conde organised a referendum to modify the constitution. The unrest intensified after he won the October election, and the opposition said dozens were killed during the crisis. In neighbouring Senegal, which has a large diaspora of Guineans who opposed Conde, news of his political demise was met with relief. “President Alpha Conde deserves to be deposed. He stubbornly tried to run for a third term when he had no right to do so,” said Malick Diallo, a young Guinean shopkeeper in the suburbs of Dakar. “We know that a coup d’etat is not good,” said Mamadou Saliou Diallo, another Guinean living in Senegal. “A president must be elected by democratic vote. But we have no choice. We have a president who is too old, who no longer makes Guineans dream and who does not want to leave power.” Additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse

Guinea coup leaders seek to tighten grip on power after toppling president

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Elite Guinea army unit toppled president, dissolves government China, Russia joins United Nations and US in condemning the coup

Elite Guinea army unit toppled president, dissolves government

China, Russia joins United Nations and US in condemning the coup