Country Context
GUINEA
Since gaining its independence in 1956, Guinea has experienced cycles of repressive governments that come to power via coups and promise to establish a democratic system, but then resume the authoritarian tendencies, corrupt practices and widespread human rights abuses of their predecessors. Individuals and communities have frequently been subjected to violence on the basis of their ethnic or political affiliations. Many barriers exist to accessing justice, not least of which is a culture of impunity that permits perpetrators to go unpunished, truth to be buried, tensions to fester and victims’ needs to be ignored. The international community has been reluctant to hold the Guinean government to account, first because of Cold War politics and subsequently because Guinea controls the world’s richest bauxite and iron reserves.
After decades of single-party rule, Guinea approved a democratic constitution and held its first multi-party general election in 1993. Despite these positive steps, the election was not considered free or fair and Lansana Conté, the country’s strongman at the time, held onto power until 2008. He was replaced upon his death by Moussa Dadis Camara, whose period of rule was characterized by atrocities, including the September 28, 2009, Conakry
Stadium massacre that killed 150, injured 1,200 and resulted in the rape of over 100 women and girls. Violence spread beyond the stadium to encompass neighborhoods composed primarily of the Malinke and Peuhl peoples. The massacre, which was perpetrated against pro-democracy demonstrators protesting Camara’s refusal to honor his promise to step down, became a decisive moment in Guinean political memory. Camara was forced to step aside in December 2009.Opposition leader and long-time human rights activist Alpha Condé won the subsequent presidential election, which raised hopes of a different trajectory for the future. His administration initially took positive steps, such as prosecuting members of the military for human rights violations and revisiting mining contracts signed in violation of Guinean law.[i] The government also created the Commission Provisoire de Réflexion sur la Réconciliation Nationale (CPRN), led by Christian and Muslim religious leaders.[ii] The CPRN’s 2016 final report recommended, among other items, that the government establish a truth commission, create a reparations program, punish perpetrators and introduce a history curriculum for schools. A technical commission was formed to follow up on the report and draft a law to create a truth commission, but the changing political climate brought the rest of the reconciliation process to a halt.[iii]
Condé followed the path of his predecessors. Corruption and impunity became the hallmarks of his rule. His government engaged in arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killing, forced disappearance and repression of ethnic groups. He won re-election in 2015 in an election with reports of rampant fraud and intimidation, then forced through a constitutional referendum permitting him to run for a third term in 2020.[iv] After he claimed victory in that vote too, widespread protests broke out and Condé’s government responded with violence.
Memory
Although Doumbouya’s government has promised a transitional justice and national reconciliation process, Guinea currently has no policy of truth-telling or of preserving evidence of past atrocities. When prior regimes have made apologies or engaged in public memorials, they have done so without giving victims and survivors an opportunity to speak. Unofficial memorials or remembrance events are often repressed by authorities, and access to sites where those memorials might be held is restricted.
State and International Initiatives
Neither the current government of Guinea nor Condé’s government have sponsored any significant memory events or sought to preserve historical memory through archives or documentation projects.
Sites of Memory
Guinea has several prominent places of memory linked to past atrocities, which hold significance for victims and survivors of successive regimes from independence to the present day. These include Camp Boiro, the November 8 Bridge, the Conakry Stadium, Camp Alpha Yaya Diallo, Camp Koundara, Camp Kémé Bourema, the Nongo cemetery, the March 3 forest in Nérékoré and Mount Kakoulima. Unfortunately, most of these memorial sites are controlled by government or military authorities who restrict access to both victims and researchers. Some sites of memory have been destroyed by authorities who have chosen to physically erase the past. For instance, the notorious prison Camp Boiro[1] was destroyed and an army hospital was built in its place.[i]
Where sites of memory remain in place, victims are often permitted to access them only on specific dates. Authorities also sometimes prevent individuals and communities from holding unofficial remembrances or mourning ceremonies on-site. Survivor communities have occasionally resorted to holding press conferences at these sites, attended by international organizations and the diplomatic community, to enable memorial activities to take place safely. Other sites, such as Conakry Stadium, remain open and functioning with no official memorial of what happened there in the past.
Truth-telling
The CPRN, convened by former president Alpha Condé, recommended in its final report that the government make public acknowledgments and apologies for past atrocities and erect stelae and other memorials to victims.[i] The CPRN also recommended that a truth commission be established with authority to investigate the period of 1958–2015.[ii] The CPRN listed 18 violations the truth commission should investigate, including assassinations, house fires, sexual violence, destruction of fields and cattle and expropriation of public goods.[iii] To date, the government has not drafted the necessary legislation to establish a truth commission.
Community and Civil Society Initiatives
The lack of sites of memory or remembrance events creates a void for victims and survivor communities, as well as depriving younger Guineans of opportunities to learn about past events directly from those who experienced them. Historians and writers have produced some records, but they are not widely accessible. In the absence of official memory initiatives, civil society has undertaken its own memory projects.
National Coalition to Support Reconciliation in Guinea
The National Coalition to Support Reconciliation in Guinea (CONAREG), a civil society coalition composed of human rights organizations, victims’ associations and the media, has held a number of memory events. In advance of the constitutional referendum in March 2020, CONAREG organized a “Body Map Exhibition” in which survivors drew pictures of their bodies depicting their lives from youth until the time they were subjected to violence. The Body Maps were exhibited in different places across Guinea to improve understanding of past events and increase compassion between communities.[i] CONAREG also maintains an online searchable memorial of disappeared persons from 1958 until the present. The memorial includes images, information about their lives and testimonies from the people they left behind.
Justice
The 2016 CPRN report contained a number of recommendations on the provision of transitional justice. Among these were strengthening justice institutions to restore trust between Guineans and their justice system, a ban on amnesty for perpetrators of international crimes and sanctions against justice and security sector actors who violate the laws. The CPRN also recommended that the government establish a reparations program based on recommendations of the future truth commission, search for missing and disappeared persons and return their bodies, if possible.[i] For years after the CPRN issued its report, little to no action was taken on its recommendations. Since seizing power in September 2021, however, the CNT government, supported by international justice actors, has made some preliminary but significant steps.
State-Led Accountability and Justice Mechanisms
Although certain areas of Guinea’s recent and distant past are still shrouded in mystery due to the inertia of the judicial system, the CNT has shown a willingness to remedy this situation by opening investigations into crimes committed during the reign of President Condé. This has raised hopes among victims of human rights violations who want to see their perpetrators brought to justice. Thus far, only the September 28 Stadium massacre case has progressed from investigation to trial, but it is nevertheless a positive sign after years of inaction. These investigations have been supported by international actors, particularly the ICC.
September 28 Stadium Massacre Trial
The September 28 Conakry Stadium massacre has remained an unhealed wound in Guinean national consciousness. Former leader Moussa Dadis Camara fled Guinea after he was ousted, and despite efforts from civil society, elements of the Guinean justice system and the international community, particularly the ICC, neither he nor any other alleged perpetrators faced accountability for 13 years. After his coup in September 2021, Doumbouya promised that justice would lie at the heart of the transition, which reinvigorated efforts to bring the perpetrators to trial.[ii] In December 2021, Camara returned to Guinea, saying he had come to clear his name. The transitional government and the ICC, which had been investigating the massacre since 2009, signed a cooperation agreement[1] in September 2022 to conduct the trial in Guinea.[iii] The trial was formally opened on the 13th anniversary of the massacre, with Camara and 10 other defendants charged with murder, sexual violence, torture, kidnapping, arson and looting.[iv]
Victim testimony, which began in February 2023, has been one of the most anticipated elements of the trial thus far, given how few opportunities victims in Guinea have had to tell their stories. In particular, women who were sexually assaulted at or around the stadium have had the opportunity to testify, not only about the events of that day but about how it has affected every day of their lives since. Survivors of gender-based violence in Guinea face strong social stigma in addition to the injuries inflicted by the assault, and many survivors from the stadium have recounted that their husbands divorced them, their communities ostracized them, they lost their livelihoods and they experienced other lasting consequences of having been attacked.[v] The process has not been seamless, however. At least one victim had her identity broadcast on national television despite her request that her identity be protected and she appear only to the judge.[vi]
Court to Repress Economic and Financial Offenses
Shortly after seizing power, the CNRD created the CRIEF, whose mandate is to address public corruption. The CRIEF has opened several investigations against former senior government officials, including the former director of the Road Maintenance Fund, the former budget minister and the former minister of Industry.[vii] It has also prohibited 37 former ministers and heads of public entities from leaving the country and has requested that they surrender their travel documents.[viii] International and Guinean observers have praised the CRIEF’s initial efforts, but have also expressed concern that the rights of the defendants may not be upheld.[ix]
Reparations
The need for reparations is another significant aspect of justice in Guinea. The CPRN found that 66 percent of people surveyed considered themselves victims of or affected by historical violence.[x] More than half said they knew people whose relatives had been murdered, who themselves had been subject to arbitrary detention or whose property had been looted. More than a third reported torture, serious injuries and property damage.[xi] The CPRN asked what reparations would be appropriate and found that most people interviewed sought some combination of compensation, restitution of property, public apologies, tributes to victims, requests for forgiveness from perpetrators and requests for forgiveness from the government.[xii] To date, the CNT has not taken any significant steps toward establishing a reparations program.
Legal, Political or Social Constraints to Accountability
Between 2010 and 2020, Guinea was shaken by numerous social and political crises that resulted in violence against civilians and the breakdown of trust between the state and its citizens. To date, the Guinean justice system has not established responsibility for the many cases of deaths, injuries and looting of public and private property, and a culture of impunity continues to be the norm. Victims have also not benefited from reparations measures pending the holding of trials, despite recommendations from both the CPRN and the African Union’s Interim Commission of Reflection on National Reconciliation and Transitional Justice Policy.[xiii] Elaborate promises followed by inaction or even a regression to human rights abuses have built frustration and reduced trust between citizens and justice institutions.
Community and Civil Society Contributions to Justice
Guinean civil society, including victims’ associations and human rights monitoring groups, has for decades carried the burden of documenting human rights violations and advocating for justice. Groups are active throughout the country, including the Guinean Organization for the Defense of Human and Citizen Rights, Same Rights for All, Lawyers Without Borders, the Guinean Coalition for the ICC, the Consortium of Youth Associations for the Defense of Victims of Human Rights and the Guinean Association for the Defense of Human Rights.[xiv]
Guinea also has a rich and complex traditional justice landscape, where many religious, clan and cultural leaders have the authority to mediate disputes or facilitate negotiations. The CPRN found that these processes, while they have legitimacy and are suitable for many purposes, may not be adequate for cases involving mass atrocities or socioeconomic violence.[xv] However, they may have an important role to play in the national reconciliation framework, particularly when it comes to forgiveness.
Education
Different Guinean political actors have historically instrumentalized ethnic groups using manipulated facts and biased histories. This tactic has been facilitated by a weak or nonexistent history curriculum, since the government of Guinea has emphasized skills-based education that prepares students for jobs in the public or private sectors. Younger Guineans consequently graduate without a common, truth-based understanding of the history of their country. To combat this gap in knowledge, the CPRN recommended that a general history curriculum be developed and that reforms to the judicial, security and administrative sectors be accompanied by a strong public communication strategy.
Formal schooling is not the only way Guineans learn about the past. The history of Guinea is also taught to the younger generations through griots[1] and storytellers, and through oral histories, especially in the villages. This education depends largely on the authors and the narratives shared within specific ethnocultural communities, sometimes creating divisions. This form of history teaching depends on the oral sources and the memorization capacity of the conservators, which means that in some places, a significant portion of the stories related to the truth are lost over time because of the difficulties of preservation and the absence of an archiving system.
Civil society has attempted to fill the education gaps, both for children and adults. Guinean CSOs have held dialogues with religious leaders, members of the media and other influential figures in their communities to introduce them to key concepts related to truth and discuss local strategies for violence prevention. These strategies focused on recent political violence and region-specific issues, such as clashes with mining companies and high rates of SGBV. CONAREG has designed and led many of these dialogues, which have been an important means of expanding its network without sacrificing local leadership.
GIJTR in Depth
When GIJTR began working with Guinean partners in 2017, there was a persistent climate of distrust between CSOs engaged in human rights and transitional justice advocacy. GIJTR spent years building trust between these organizations, culminating in the creation of CONAREG, which adopted a joint strategy to pursue truth, transitional justice and national reconciliation. GIJTR and local partners have established a survivor database, collected oral histories and created an art exhibit about the experiences of youth during pro-democracy protests. Trust- and coalition-building have had benefits beyond documentation and advocacy. Prior to the October 2020 elections, local partners trained by GIJTR built broad community leader coalitions that worked to de-escalate tensions and broadcasted messages of nonviolence before and after the election. GIJTR sponsored town hall dialogues and other community-based activities that promoted intergenerational exchanges to help connect Guinean youth with community leaders, including religious leaders.
Recommendations
The transitional government of Guinea should uphold the rights of Guineans to gather for remembrance events and should train military and civil authorities who prohibit such gatherings on the human rights protections.
The transitional government of Guinea should draft and adopt the necessary legislation to establish a truth commission.
Guinean civil society should develop public education materials on transitional justice, the recommendations of the CPRN report and the status of the national reconciliation process.
The ICC and other international justice actors should continue supporting the September 28 trial, including efforts to ensure that victims are protected and the trial does not experience further delays.
The transitional government of Guinea should take into account the CPRN finding that transitional justice processes, while legitimate and suitable for many purposes, may not be adequate for cases involving mass atrocities or socioeconomic violence.
Notes
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