Junta declares 2-day mourning
2009-09-30 08:36
Conakry - Guinea's military junta declared two days of national mourning from Wednesday over the killing of scores of people during a crackdown on an opposition rally and banned mass gatherings on those days.
"I declare a national mourning on Wednesday and Thursday," junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara said on television late on Tuesday.
"Any mass gatherings which are of a subversive nature are banned," he added.
Camara urged Christian and Muslim priests, political and civic leaders and journalists to "abstain from acts that disrupt public order".
He warned that those disobeying the order would be severely punished.
Rights activists said Guinean troops had killed at least 157 people, wounded more than 1 000, and raped women in a crackdown on Monday on an opposition rally.
The country's military ruler said he was sorry for the violence, but a human rights group alleged that junta soldiers killed three more people outside the capital Conakry on Tuesday and kidnapped victims of the crackdown from hospitals.
