Stop the Violence in Guinea
Categories: Featured, Uncategorized
Written By: admin
Story by Saliho A. Donzo
Photo on Flickr by Adam Cohn
Everyone understands how imporant it is for a leader to keep his word and live with integrity. However, experience shows that more often than not those who have accomplished great things have had little respect for keeping their word.
In the end they have been dishonest to those who believed in them. Remember, a man who deceives always has people that will deceive him as well.
Today the art of using language as a means to persuade (rhetoric) has become a major weapon in politics. But its use has become a problem for many leaders, especially those in Africa.
This bring us to the question of the current tension in the capital of neighboring Guinea. Once there lived a man by the name of Ahmed Sekou Toure, who headed a nation called Guinea. To many he was a tyrant because of his policies, especially towards those who were white. Then in 1984, following his death, one of his top generals, Lasana Conte, took up leadership until he was overthrown in December 2008. He was also referred to by many as a tyrant.
Immediately following Conte’s death, another military personnel named Captain Moussa Dadis Camara hijacked the leadership of Guinea with his famous french phrase “Nous n’avons pas venues pour prendre le pouvoir, mais pour nettoyage la maison”, meaning “We have not come to take power, but we came only to clean up your house… “
This new statement has caused tensions in almost all aspects of the nation, which has lead to the death of 157 and the injury of about 12,000 people in what was supposed to be a peaceful march against the regime. All Guineans want is for the captain to step down and go back to the barracks where he belongs.
Conclusion :
In this light, we (the well wishers) are calling on all bodies concerned such as the MRU, AU, UN, EU, etc to swiftly interfere directly or indirectly in bringing this tension to a halt; because I vehemently believe that the Guineans story is part of our stories. On one Saturday morning of April 14 1979 there was a rice riot in Liberia. The then-president of Guinea, Ahmed Shekou Toure, helped immediately in the process for the sake of the Liberians. During the almost decade and a half of civil unrest that the Liberians faced, the Republic of Guinea was used by many Liberians as a safe haven. Guinea was part of the African peacekeeping troops (Ecomog), which lost many soldiers in order to protect Liberia. The Guinean peacekeepers were known by the nick name “mon ami”, which means in English “my friend”.
This is a call to action: stand up against the bloodshed of innocents on our continent and in the world because our people are becoming victims of POLITICAL RHETORIC….
