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Guinea junta admits army split
Conakry (AFP) Jan 9, 2009 The head of the military junta that seized power in Guinea last month admitted Friday that the army was split over its action and warned dissident generals to stay calm. "I call on the children of the generals, on their families to advise them so they stay quietly at home because they have had their time and cannot have other people's time," coup leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara told thousands of troops at a military camp in the capital Conakry. He warned "the old generation of soldiers of the Guinean army" to stay calm and said that anyone caught scheming would be punished." "Generals who took me to school are against me because I have supreme power, they are against me, but it is God who will punish them," Moussa, whose junta seized power on December 23, said, acknowledging splits in the senior ranks of the armed forces. "I ask our elders to stay quiet, not to try anything against us, because if they stay quiet they will receive all honours," he said, but anyone "caught plotting against the state will be punished." In recent days the junta has arrested 16 senior officers, among them several close to the late president Lansana Conte, who ruled from 1984 until he died last year, and three civilians. Those arrested include three generals retired by the junta: former army chief of staff Diarra Camara, former navy chief Ali Daffe and his deputy Admiral Fassiriman Traore. The wave of arrests began on Saturday and the detainees are now being held at military headquarters in Conakry, according to military sources and sources close to the arrested officers. The armed forces were one of the pillars of the regimes of presidents Ahmed Sekou Toure (1958-84) and Conte. Conte ally Colonel Vivas Sylla as well as a nephew of the late president who was a member of the presidential guard are also being held. No reason for the arrests has been given. Camara told his audience that he would improve their living conditions and look after them and appealed to them to remain solidly behind the defence minister. As for his personal future: "We are here for a time, we shall pass on the flame and Guinea will continue its march forward," he said. "After my mandate I shall not stay here in Guina, I shall be in international institutions and organisations: the United Nations, African Union and so on." West African foreign ministers met in Nigeria Friday after splits emerged within the 15 member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as to whether the regional grouping should suspend Guinea following the coup there. Foreign ministers from ECOWAS members were to try to reach a consensus on the attitude the regional body should adopt towards the junta ahead of a meeting of national leaders. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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