Current Guinea leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara Less than a week after I returned from Guinea the country began to drastically change. On December 22, 2008 the long time President Lansana Conte passed away tossing the country into political uncertainty. A bloodless coup was led shortly after by current ruler Captain Dadis Camara.

Initially promising an end to the military dictatorship seen throughout Guinea’s short history as an independent state, Camara quickly won the approval of the Guinean people. He made promises to eradicate the drug trafficking and hold civilian elections from which he would not be an eligible candidate. Shortly after my return from Guinea in June 2009 things began to take a turn for the worse.

Af ter a ser ies of stal l ing tact ics and delayed elect ions by Camara’s regime, political unrest began to develop. To combat this Camara increased the visibility of his military forces to quell any disobedience. He made laws forbidding any political groups the right to assemble and publicly threatened prosecution for any journal ist who wrote negatively about the decisions he had made for the country. Under their new leader, the Guinean people had lost all of their Civil rights.

In early September, rumors began to surface that Captain Camara had scheduled elections for January 2010, and he would be a candidate for president. Knowing a real election could not be realized with Camara as a candidate, protests began to break out. Camara further increased his military presence in the capi tal and claimed that opposition leaders were trying to overthrow the stability he had brought to Guinea.

On September 28, 2009, thousands of Guineans filled the international soccer stadium in Conakry where a political protest ral ly was to be held. Shortly after it began, a wel l–armed Guinea military showed up claiming they were ordered to disperse the illegal assembly. With all the major exits blocked, the military personnel began firing into the protesters.

Police guard bodies before burial. When the chaos finally stopped 157 people had been ki l led wi th more than 1,200 being injured, mostly from being trampled by the fleeing protesters. Count less accounts of women being raped in the streets have been made against the military. When questioned about the massacre, Captain Camara has claimed he is in no way responsible for the actions taken by his military, and he cannot personal ly be blamed because he was in his office.

Since the September 28 massacre, the majority of the countries in the EU and America have pulled all of their aid to the country and briefly closed their embassies. The Peace Corps has relocated all of its volunteers to neighboring Mal i and closed i ts operations in Guinea for the second t ime in f ive years. Captain Camara has claimed he will work with the UN in an investigation to determine who is responsible for the massacre but has also begun to intimidate citizens who discuss the massacre.

Above, protesters “escorted” from stadium. The country I was so fortunate to have a chance to experience has become a military state run by a psychopath. The people I grew to admire and have such af fect ion for are being raped and murdered in the streets. My biggest fear is that people will forget the atrocities committed and claim it’s simply “just something that happens in Africa.” Denial of basic human and civi l r ights is unforget table, unacceptable, and unforgivable.
Boy reacts to identifying the body of a friend
At left, Captain Camara says he will run for office in 2010.