Guinea: 50 years after the summary executions, steps towards the recognition of the victims

A cell in the Boiro camp in Guinea.

© DR

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Sad memory that the Guineans commemorated this Monday morning, October 18 in the grounds of the former Boiro camp in Conakry.

There perished thousands of civilians and soldiers under the regime of Sékou Touré.

Hundreds of people mobilized to remember the executions that took place in this military camp on October 18, 1971.

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With our correspondent in Conakry,

Moctar Bah

In Guinea, fifty years ago, on the night of October 17-18, 1971, under the Sékou Touré regime, 71 detained people were executed without trial.

Nightly summary executions in a context of repression.

The year 71 was that of a veritable witch hunt waged against those whom Sékou Touré perceived as " 

enemies of the interior

 ", the " 

fifth column

 ".

Ministers and senior officials were killed that night.

Their bodies have never been identified.

Mostly dressed in red t-shirts, synonymous with spilled blood, the victims and children of the victims commemorated the 50 years of these summary executions inside the Boiro camp.

Claims

Nightly executions carried out under the Sékou Touré regime, both in Conakry and everywhere in the interior of the country, in particular in Kindia and Kankan, two garrison towns in the west and east of the country.

In a statement on the scene where the crimes were perpetrated, the spokesperson for the association of victims of the Boiro camp, Abdoulaye Conté, thanked the new Guinean authorities.

According to him, they facilitated this ceremony which had been prohibited to them for the past two years.

Guinean Prime Minister Mohamed Béavogui represented the Head of State, Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya.

The Minister Secretary General of the Presidency as well as the President's Chief of Staff were also present.

For Fodé Marega, also of the association of victims of the Boiro camp, these presences are a strong gesture.

It's a wonderful day, a day that marks a start because it is the first time that we have had the visit of the officials of this country since the creation [of the association] in 1985. There, it is the First minister who traveled, representing the Head of State.

He repeated that we had to take responsibility for our past [...] It really represents a notable advance in the settlement of our fight.

So it's relief today, it was extremely important that they come to mark the political change in this country

Fode Marega

Abdoulaye Conté formulated a series of demands submitted to the Prime Minister.

Among these demands figure prominently the rehabilitation of victims of the repression of the 1st Republic buried in mass graves and the return of seized property.

According to Kabinet Fofana, political analyst, CNRD wants to give an impetus to the recognition of the victims.

Going there is first of all this first recognition [of the State]. Second, it is to comfort all those who have been crying for these years. And then it is such a political way of starting a desire to shed light on this rather painful historical point in our history [...] I cannot say that there is a desire to spare Sékou Touré , but rather a caution not to wake up the file because that could crumble as well the social fabric but also the political impulses of all those which came after Sékou [...] Alpha Condé said that he took back Guinea there where Sékou Touré had left it, which made it clear that Alpha had therefore addressed these abuses and that this would not constitute a priority for him and this was the case throughout his mandate,there was no trial, much less recognition speech, even endorsement from the point of view of the continuity of the state.

Kabinet Fofana

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