Monday, November 30, 2009

[Guinean news] Prominent human rights activist arrested; ICG head calls Dadis unstable

According to the Voice of America, Mouctar Diallo, a prominent Guinean human rights' activist, was arrested by soldiers in Conakry. The head of Guinea's main human rights' advocacy organization says Diallo was arrested because of an interview he gave to the Voice of America on September 28th -- the day soldiers opened fire on protestors in the capital's main sports stadium.

The arrest is seen as an attempt to intimidate potential witnesses, as the United Nations' inquiry into the Sept. 28 massacres began work a week and a half ago.

In an op-ed in The New York Times, International Crisis Group president Louise Arbour called on the main mediator, Burkina Faso president Blaise Compaoré, to stick to the West African regional bloc ECOWAS' main initial objective: managing the junta's exit from power. Arbour, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned that junta leader Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara "gives signs of mental instability" but warns that attempts to replace him with another general might fracture the military's already shaky unity.

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