Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC)
8 July 2009
(Page 2 of 2)
Human Rights Watch has since then documented several incidents of theft and violence by members of the military against businesspeople and ordinary citizens, including thefts of goods and cars, and extortion by soldiers manning checkpoints in the Matoto and Bonfi neighborhoods of Conakry. In one egregious incident, a Guinean businessman who had recently returned from living abroad described how, on May 30, two armed soldiers threw him out of a third-story window after robbing him and spraying tear gas in his eyes. The soldiers then stole his car. The fall broke the man's back, both legs, and both arms.
Official Call for Vigilante Justice that Undermines the Rule of Law
A call from a CNDD top law enforcement official for vigilante justice to be meted out against suspected thieves has seriously undermined respect for the rule of law in Guinea. At least one person appears to have been murdered in a vigilante attack.
During a June 2 meeting with local government and community leaders, which was widely reported in national and international media, Captain Moussa Tiegboro Camara (no relation to the CNDD president, Dadis Camara), the minister charged with the fight against drug trafficking and serious crime, urged youths to set up surveillance brigades and to "burn all armed bandits who are caught red-handed committing an armed robbery," adding that there was no more room in Guinea's prisons to accommodate these criminals.
In the early morning hours of June 5, residents in the Yimbaya neighborhood of Conakry found a young man lying under a tree whose body was severely burned and whose face, fingers, and ears had been cut in multiple places. They informed Human Rights Watch that the man told them he had hours before been accused of theft by other local residents, who then burned him on his chest, back, and buttocks with a clothes iron, severely beat him, and cut him with a razor blade. The man died two hours after he was found by the residents.
Local residents further described to Human Rights Watch how, at around 5 p.m. the same day, Tiegboro visited the neighborhood to look at the corpse and address local residents. According to several residents who attended the meeting, Tiegboro told them: "You've done well to kill this man. He is a criminal and any time you see such a criminal, you should kill him. If you don't have the money to buy petrol, come to my office and I will give you money to buy it."
Another man attending the meeting said: "No one opposed what Captain Tiegboro said, but I think what happened to him [the victim] is wrong. In fact, it is the torturers who should be arrested and tried for what they did to him."
When interviewed by Human Rights Watch on June 24, Tiegboro asserted that he supported the rule of law and the right to a fair trial, but that his appeal for "popular justice had been intended as a preventive action to frighten would-be perpetrators." He denied offering money to local residents intending to burn criminals alive, but noted emphatically that the victim of the June 5 incident had a well-known criminal history and had been in and out of Conakry's main prison at least eight times.
While Human Rights Watch was unable to ascertain whether those who attacked the man were incited to action by Tiegboro's statement, it appears that he endorsed the killing after the fact. Human Rights Watch called on the Guinean authorities to retract the minister's call for the formation of vigilante groups and any calls to kill suspected criminals. Those who carry out vigilante attacks, including the murder in Yimbaya, should be investigated and prosecuted.
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