The cycle of violence continues

COMMENT

IN the aftermath of the death of Lansana Conte, the former leader of Guinea in West Africa, an unknown captain in the Guinean army Mousa Dadis Camara declared a coup. He and a group of officer seized power in the state and vowed that the sins of Conte would not be repeated.
Living in neighbouring Gambia at the time, we watched the situation with great interest. Along with my colleagues at the time, I marvelled at the cyclical, repetitive nature of West African politics. Conte himself had seized power in a coup 25 years earlier and promised democracy and justice for the people. Now Camara was doing the same. In The Gambia, the current president Jammeh had done the same and now ruled the country through a potent mix of murder, fear and persecution.
The general feeling was that not much would change in Guinea despite the switch of command. Guinea, despite its small size, is home to vast deposits of minerals and could potentially be a very wealthy country. Money from the minerals found its way into the pockets of Conte’s advisors and his family who amassed incredible wealth through the theft of the people’s money. On the streets, poverty is endemic and starvation a constant threat. If ever there was a country in need of saving, Guinea was it.
On the September 28 last year, I sat far from West Africa reading the news online. To my dismay, Guinea was once again in the headlines.
In response to peaceful protests by the citizens, the military junta had carried out a massacre. The incident has come to be known as Black Monday.
I write about this now because Amnesty International has this week released a report into the circumstances surrounding the massacre, its aftermath and some of the people who facilitated it.
It describes, “extrajudicial executions, torture and other ill-treatment, rape, sexual slavery and arbitrary detention carried out by particular units of Guinea’s armed forces – the gendarmerie – and police. Guinea security forces killed more than 150 people and raped over 40 women during and following the protests. More than 1,500 people were wounded and many people went missing or were detained.”
In addition to these atrocities, the report details another shocking aspect to this outrage; the countries from the international community who supported it.
The list in full includes France, China, Germany, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and the USA. Chief among the facilitators of the carnage appears to have been our European  colleagues, the French, who authorised the export of tear gas between 2004 and 2008 as part of its “wide-ranging support” for Guinea.
Staggeringly, the report reveals “The French government announced on February 16, 2010 that it intends to resume military co-operation with Guinea. Any co-operation that involves technical assistance or training relating to military or security equipment, as it has done in the recent past, may contravene the current European Union arms embargo on Guinea.”
I can think of no better test of Ireland’s mettle than to stand up in Europe and demand that the French not only explain themselves in full but cease supporting murderers in West Africa.
We are rightly in the grips of a serious diplomatic incident at the moment along with a number of other countries because of the use of fake passports in the murder of a Hamas official in Dubai. The Dubai police force reports that it is 99% sure that the Israeli secret service, Mossad, was behind the killing. Fake Irish, British, German and French passports were used in the killing leading to widespread condemnation and concern on the part of the offended countries as Israel remains tightlipped.
I can’t help but be struck by the double standard in this situation. Certainly, the offended governments have the right to complain but two of those listed above have been directly named in the Amnesty International report with regard to the facilitation of violence in Guinea.
Amnesty has also uncovered evidence of private companies from Israel, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates have been training militia in Guinea. A press release states, “Evidence obtained by Amnesty International identifies some of these individuals in locations where a new youth militia, reportedly including children under 18 years of age, has been trained by foreign and Guinean trainers during late 2009. The report includes the first eye-witness accounts of this militia training programme.” 
Incidents such as the murder in Dubai and the publication of the Amnesty International report give us a small insight into the dark dealings that are carrying on all the time around the world without the knowledge of much of the population but does government involvement mean we should ignore them? In the aftermath of the horrific earthquake in Haiti, the world rushed to give money to ease the suffering of those affected. The same has not happened for Guinea. The ordinary people of the world who are not involved in politics clearly want suffering to be relieved not facilitated. Why then should our governments, as our representatives, not aim to stop suffering in our name?
Issues like human rights will not be figuring very prominently at major meetings in Europe at times of economic crisis but maybe they should. Ireland now has an opportunity to raise the issue of France and Germany’s involvement in supporting the tyrannical regime in Guinea and show that it genuinely believes in protecting the human rights of people around the world as well as those of its citizens.
When you are suffering from hunger and deprivation, I cannot imagine that the cause of your suffering, be it natural disaster or manmade, gives you much relief either way. We cannot prevent natural disasters but we should do all in our power to prevent manmade ones.