Guinea to co-operate with UN probe

Guinea’s military leadership has pledged to co-operate with a United Nations inquiry into last month’s deadly crackdown on opposition demonstrators, a UN official has said.

Haile Menkerios, the UN envoy, made the announcement after holding talks with senior junta officials including Moussa Dadis Camara, the country’s military ruler, in the capital, Conakry.

"The prime minister and the president [Camara] have reassured me that they are ready to co-operate with this commission of inquiry," Menkerios said on Monday, welcoming the junta’s willingness to "speak with the international community". He said Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, was "ready to speed up the arrival of a team of investigators to Guinea".

The UN and rights groups have said at least 150 people were killed when presidential guard troops opened fire on protesters gathered on a soccer stadium on September 28. The government has said 56 people died.

Libya protest

Libya, which currently holds the African Union presidency, on Monday criticized the UN for interfering in Guinea‘s internal affairs by mounting an investigation.

"The African Union strongly rejects this intervention which it considers as interference in the internal affairs of an independent country," the official Jana news agency quoted a African Union presidency spokesman as saying.

Guinea’s military rulers have meanwhile set up their own 31-member independent commission of inquiry into the massacre, which Kabine Komara, the prime minister, said would work in tandem with the UN probe.

International pressure is growing on Camara, who seized power in a coup in December last year. The International Criminal Court plans to hold a preliminary inquiry to determine if war crimes had been committed. The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) at the weekend agreed on weapons sanctions against the military government.

Source: Aljazeera

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