The United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has called for the ousting of Guinea's military junta in the wake of what she described as the indiscriminate murder and rape of opposition demonstrators last week.

"We were appalled and outraged by the recent violence," she told journalists in Washington Tuesday, according to a transcript released by the State Department.
"It will not surprise you to hear that I was particularly appalled by the violence against women. In broad daylight in a stadium, it was a criminality of the greatest degree."

About 160 people were reported killed and hundreds injured in a military crackdown on a demonstration on September 28. Witnesses said soldiers opened fire on demonstrators, stabbed people with bayonets and gang-raped women and girls.

Speaking after a meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Clinton said the junta which seized power last December should recognize "that they cannot remain in power, that they must turn back to the people the right to choose their own leaders."

She added that those who killed and raped protestors "should not be given any reason to expect that they will escape justice. There should be no impunity, and there should be an effort to bring those who were the leaders and perpetrators of the murders and rapes to justice very shortly."