WGBA -Guinea accuses France of complicity in shooting

Guinea accuses France of complicity in shooting

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
Associated Press Writer

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) - Guinea's communications minister on Tuesday accused the French secret service of being complicit in an assassination attempt against the West African country's leader. Former colonial power France called the allegations "absurd rumors."

The comments come after commando units loyal to the wounded leader of Guinea's military junta swept through neighborhoods near the capital, arresting civilians believed to have ties to the renegade soldier accused of trying to assassinate Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara.

Minister of Communications Idrissa Cherif said Tuesday that France may be harboring renegade soldier Lt. Abubakar "Toumba" Diakite in the French Embassy in Conakry.

"I'm not saying that he's hiding there," Cherif said. "I'm saying that it's possible. I'm saying that the French are guilty, the French secret service is implicated in this matter."

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said the claims by Guinea's communications minister were "absurd rumors that I forcefully deny." French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said it had no comment.

Guinea became independent in 1958 after nearly seven decades of French rule.

Earlier this year, Camara dismissed the French foreign minister's call for international intervention in Guinea after soldiers there opened fire on demonstrators. Human rights groups say at least 157 people were killed and that dozens of women were raped.

Camara, who seized power in a coup a year ago, called French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's comments an "affront to the dignity" of African people in an interview with France24 radio and television.

On Monday, the French ambassador to Guinea was stopped by soldiers in his diplomatic car near the airport and submitted to a search, according to a top diplomat and a person close to the French Embassy, who both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the matter.

The ambassador's bodyguards were made to lie down on the pavement as rocket-launchers were pointed at them, they said.

Cherif declined to say how many people had been arrested in the sweep of the capital following the assassination attempt. But Thierno Sow, head of a Guinean human rights group, voiced concern over allegations of torture.

A top foreign diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have authority to speak with the media, said that he saw a leaked copy of a military-produced videotape. It showed a top commander arrested over the weekend who is believed to be allied with Toumba.

The image showed that the commander had been stripped to his waist, his arms bound behind his back, and his body appeared to be covered in blood, the diplomat said.

It still remained unclear Tuesday how badly wounded Camara was following last week's attack. In an effort to tamp down speculation that he was badly hurt, the country's foreign minister said Monday that Camara was conscious and speaking.

But a doctor who saw Camara's CAT scan and who agreed to speak to the AP on the condition of anonymity due to patient confidentiality said the bullet had skimmed the right side of the leader's skull, causing a splinter of bone to wedge itself in his brain. He said the injury could be life-threatening if it causes excessive swelling in the brain, but he added that he was told by the technician who administered the scan that Camara had been able to step inside the CAT scan tunnel without assistance - indicating that he was still mobile before the surgery was performed.

Even if the piece of bone can be removed, the doctor said Camara could suffer mental impairments, especially memory loss, given that the frontal part of the brain, where memory is stored, was touched.

Camara came to power last December after the death of the country's former strongman, Lansana Conte - who was also a captain in the Guinean army when he grabbed power 24 years earlier. Conte's regime had been marked by excessive corruption and Camara promised he had come to "clean." He pledged to punish all those who had embezzled from the state and then to hand over power to civilians in democratic elections in which he would not run.

It was only months later that he reversed course. In September, the presidential guard opened fire on unarmed protesters demanding an end to military rule.

The shocking level of violence prompted the African Union and the European Union to immediately impose an arms embargo on Guinea and to impose sanctions, including a travel ban on top members of the junta. The army, which was already deeply divided, began to fracture further as leaders of the massacre began pointing the finger at each other.

The tension increased last week as a U.N. commission investigating the killings began interviewing members of the junta in an effort to assign blame.

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Associated Press writer Angela Doland in Paris contributed to this report.

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