Brussels, 15/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - The vice is tightening around Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, leader of the military junta which has seized power in the Republic of Guinea and is responsible for the massacre of civilians taking part in a peaceful opposition demonstration in Conakry on 28 September.
With the International Criminal Court (ICC) conducting a preliminary assessment of the situation to establish whether it is competent to judge the crimes committed and the United States calling for the ruling junta to demit office, European Development Commissioner Karel de Gucht called unequivocally, on Wednesday 14 October, for Dadis Camara to be tried for crimes against humanity. The commissioner was talking to press in Addis Ababa where the 13th EU-African Union (AU) troika is being held at the AU headquarters, with Guinea, inter alia, on the agenda.
“The leader of the coup must be judged in court for crimes against humanity. The brutality of the repression of the demonstration on 28 September was unprecedented. We are really dealing here with a crime against humanity. And there is a principle that, anywhere, whenever a crime against humanity is committed, it is tried in a court of law,” De Gucht is quoted by AFP as telling press.
In their joint statement, European Union and African Union ministers condemn in the strongest possible terms the violent repression of a political demonstration by Guinean security forces, with the resultant loss of life and large numbers of injured.
The EU and the AU express their deep concern over the deteriorating human rights situation, arbitrary arrests and restrictions on freedom of speech in Guinea, and the intention of Dadis Camara, who is president of the National Council for Development and Democracy (CNDD), to stand in the presidential elections scheduled for 31 January 2010.
The EU and the AU “called on the president of the CNDD to confirm and formalise his earlier commitments” that neither he, the members of the CNDD nor the prime minister would stand for the office of president.
The European Union informed the AU that the gradual resumption of cooperation between the EU and Guinea was linked to the transition process in that country.
Both the EU and the AU agreed that the international community should continue to closely monitor the situation and push forward democratic transition in Guinea, in particular within the framework of the International Contact Group. (A.N./transl.rt)