Women were primary targets of the Guinean soldiers who brutally repressed a political demonstration at a stadium in Conakry, the capital city of the West African nation. On September 28, soldiers shot and killed unarmed opposition demonstrators, approximately 50,000 of whom had gathered at the stadium to protest the military junta currently in power in Guinea. Human rights groups told the New York Times that more than one thousand people suffered gunshot wounds and other injuries. Although the government reports that 56 people were killed, human rights groups claim that there were more than 157 dead. Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, the junta leader, assumed no responsibility for the violence, instead blaming the opposition figures.
Cell phone photographs, as well as witness and victim accounts, depict rape and other forms of abuse. One woman describes that a soldier ripped off her clothes with a knife, leaving a large cut. Another woman talks of being “‘traumatized.’”[1] A third, who was whipped by a soldier, recalls: “‘When I went out, I saw one of the soldiers lying on top of a woman…’”[2] Mamadou Mouctar Diallo, an opposition leader who claims that he was also severely beaten, recounts seeing at least ten women raped. The Doctors Without Borders team in Conakry treated three rape victims and three victims of other sexual violence in the hours after the protest. Sidya Touré, a former prime minister, said that he was also beaten at the stadium and observed the violence there. Touré explains: “‘This time, a new stage has been reached…Women as battlefield targets. We could never have imagined that. Where could people get the idea to start raping women in broad daylight?’”[3] François Lonsény Fall, another former prime minister who was present at the demonstration, told the New York Times: “‘They especially tore into the women. They were seeking to humiliate them.’”[4] Foreign minister of France Bernard Kouchner has called for “‘international intervention.’”[5]
For more information, see
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/world/africa/30guinea.html?scp=1&sq=Nossiter%20Guinea&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/world/africa/06guinea.html?_r=1
