By Mariama Coker, Information Attache, MRU countries, Monrovia, Liberia.
Following the September 28th massacre in Guinea/Conakry this year, the African Union, the European Union and ECOWAS have agreed on weapons sanctions on Guinea while the International Criminal Court would take up the matter of Guinea’s junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara(photo) currently accused of human rights violations mostly against women.
Also, at a special summit over the weekend in Abuja/Nigeria, Heads of State and Foreign Affairs Ministers from 15 member States slammed weapons sanctions on Capt. Camara.
ECOWAS called on its Regional Chairman, President H.E. Yar’Adua to take necessary action to obtain the support of the AU, EU and the United Nations in order to enforce the embargo.
In its earlier statement ECOWAS condemned the atrocities in Guinea that led to the untimely death of 157 people with over 1,200 injured. Most of these victims, according to eye witness accounts from Guinea/Conakry were trampled to death, while human rights organizations accused Guinean soldiers of sexual abuses and raping of women during the crackdown.
However, the AU, in another development, is said to have ordered the junta leader and team to resign. France is also quoted to have ordered its nationals to leave the mineral rich country as the security situation is said to have seriously degenerated and that there is no short-term prospect that the situation could improve.
Meanwhile, Guinean’s Information Minister, Justin Morel Junior, is said to have resigned, being the third Minister in a row. Despite International pressure Captain Moussa Dadis Camara is strongly believed to be running as a Presidential candidate come Jaunary 2010.
Most importantly Nigeria’s President Yar’Adua during an extra ordinary summit over the weekend in Abuja called on all member states to work on effective and practical strategies on the evolving crises in Niger and Guinea in order to avert an unimaginable tragedy for the people of the sub region. He also urged them not to fold hands while the situation degenerates into conflicts of monumental proportion without employing appropriate intervention mechanisms to effectively arrest the drift.
Present at the extra ordinary summit in Abuja over the weekend on the Sierra Leonean side were His Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Mrs. Zainab Hawa Bangura, Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. Richard Konteh and Sierra Leone’s Permanent Representative to ECOWAS, His Excellency High Commissioner Henry O. Macauley.
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