"Guinea's authorities reach out to unions under martial law"

      - Thu Feb 15 2007  AFP

  The authorities in Guinea went into talks with powerful unions behind the unrest that has led to martial law and triggered warnings that the country could spiral into chaos.

  The unions had this week resumed fresh protests against President Lansana Conte's rule, when two days into the mass action, the septuagenarian leader on Tuesday slapped martial law across the west African country.

  Parliament speaker Aboubacar Sompare, who constitutionally would take over in the event that the head of state is incapacitated, initiated talks attended by union leaders and military representatives as well and religious and business chiefs.

  No details of the agenda of the talks, the first since Conte imposed martial law to counter the protests that have so far claimed 113 lives in a crackdown, were immediately available.

  One more person was killed in a provincial town Thursday, taking to nine the number shot dead by soldiers for defying stringent conditions of martial law, under which troops have orders to shoot in the event of "resistance or threat of attack."

  Elsewhere the situation was generally calm.

  Global and regional bodies have condemned the use of force in Guinea and urged the key actors to dialogue to end the crisis to stop it denigrating into a bloodbath.

  A global think tank warned on Wednesday that the situation in the troubled west African state of Guinea, in the third day of martial law, could swiftly deteriorate into a bloodbath.

  "Guinean actors and the international community need urgently to cooperate to implement an action plan that brings about peaceful change and prevents an escalation of violence," it said.

  African Union Commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare has protested to Conte, who has ruled Guinea since a bloodless 1984 military coup, for "using the armed forces as an instrument" against civilians.

  "I strongly condemn the disproportionate use of the forces against civilian population that has led to huge loss of human lives," Konare said in a letter to Conte, who suffers from memory lapses and diabetes and has been diagnosed with leukemia.

  Konare further called on Conte to work toward forming transitional institutions which he said were the only viable means out of the country's crisis.

  "If this is not the case, it is to be feared that the state of siege that you have decreed worsens the situation and leads to further instability."

  The country is under a strict curfew allowing people out for just six hours a day until February 23 and the military have powers to take whatever measures are necessary to maintain order.

  Public and private gathering, except for religious purposes, are banned under the draconian regulations.

  "It is necessary to lift the state of siege. It is too tough for the Guineans", outspoken leader of the National Confederation of the Workers of Guinea (CNTG) Rabiatou Serah Diallo, told AFP.

  Alpha Sow a senior official of the Syndicated Union of Workers of Guinea (USTG), echoed, "it is necessary to remove the state of siege before any negotiations."

  Labour unions have been the dominant forces behind the strike that began as a protest against economic hardship and corruption and escalated into demands for an end to Conte's rule.

  Conte's choice of martial law suspended many of the civil liberties of the 9.4 million Guineans.

  The ICG warned that further chaos in Guinea could well destabilise its frail neighbours -- Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.

  Sierra Leone said it has tightened security on its southern border with Guinea "to unprecedented levels," to avoid a spillover of the violent unrest gripping its neighbour.