Camara may stay in power

2009-11-20 15:57

Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, who is mediating in Guinea's crisis, has recommended that junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara stay in power during a transition government, in a document seen by AFP on Friday.

Such a recommendation is likely to be challenged by Guinea's opposition, which has repeatedly said it will enter no direct talks with the junta if Camara insists on staying in power.

In the document, Compaore proposes forming a national transition council led by Camara, who would be the head of state and the army's supreme commander, with a government chief from the opposition.

"The national transition council will be charged with organising presidential elections within ten months," the document says.

The transition period would start in December, it added. During the interim Guinea would also have a government of national unity made up of ten members of the anti-junta opposition, ten people from the junta's ruling council and ten others, possibly to be occupied by small political parties that support the military leadership.

Presidential elections

In the proposed deal, Camara would be able to be a candidate for the presidential elections.

"The head of state and any member of the government that wants to be a candidate for the presidential elections will have to step down four months before the election date," the document said.

Camara came to power in a bloodless coup on December 23, 2008 after the death of dictator Lansana Conte, who had led the country since 1984.

After an initial period of optimism the mood turned sour in the mineral rich country.

Then government troops killed scores of opposition protesters in a Conakry stadium on September 28. The opposition had gathered to urge Camara not to run in a presidential election he has slated for January.

The military junta said 56 people were killed and 934 were injured in the incident. The Guinean opposition and Human Rights Watch say the attack on the protesters was organised and premeditated, and put the death toll at 157. The United Nations believes at least 150 were killed.

- SAPA