Dakar — Officials of the military junta regime in Guinea have issue a unilateral report in which they exonerate their leader from crimes against humanity in last year's September massacre.
According to the report, only about 55 pro-democracy protesters were killed during the incident as opposed to 157 as stated by a United Nations report.
The military junta report placed total blame on a renegade bodyguard, Lt Boubacar Diakité, who is still on the run following a failed assignation attempt on the country's leader on December 3 last year.
The report which was made public on Wednesday contradicts the one issued by the UN team which accused the country's leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara "crimes against humanity".
Issuing the report to the international community including diplomats and UN representatives in Conakry, the interim military junta leader, General Sekouba Konaté, said the local investigators mostly military officers did an "excellent job".
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Gen Konaté pledged that the army and other security agents in the country will pursue and arrest the runaway assassin, Lt Diakité and bring him to book for the massacre and also for attempting to kill the head of state.
The military junta's investigation report which did not name any other culprit besides Lt Diakité also contradicts an earlier one by the United States-based Human Rights Watch which also accused the Guinean military junta leader along with several other senior members of the regime of the mass killings.
The rights group, like the UN, insisted that the junta hierarchy planned and executed the carnage on prodemocracy protesters by closing the stadium and opening fire on the civilians, leaving 157 dead, over 1,000 severely injured, 44 missing and dozens of women and girls raped.
Both the rights group and the UN report stated that the orders to shoot the demonstrators came from the junta leader, Captain Camara after carefully planning it with other senior junta officials.
The reports said the orders were them executed by several other junta soldiers who were headed by Lt Diakité the former senior aide-de-camp of Captain Camara who is still at large.
Days later, Lt Diakité's told Radio France International in his first declaration since he went into hiding, that he did not shoot at any of the demonstrators, but rather, that he was the one who helped to save the lives of the leading opposition politicians during the carnage.
Even though some of the leading opposition politicians confirmed that Lt Diakité was indeed instrumental in saving their lives, the rights group and the UN report said it had gathered evidence proving that the former bodyguard was among the soldiers who committed the killings.
Officials of the rights group travelled to Guinea and conducted an independent investigation during which it said it collected graphic and other tangible evidences to prove the exactitude of its statements.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon set up the inquiry team comprising of African experts including Mohamed Bedjaoui of Algeria, Françoise Ngendahayo Kayiramirwa of Rwanda and Pramila Patten from the Seychelles.
Mr Ban pledged to examine the report and forward it to the International Criminal Court for action. During the just-ended Africa Union summit, the heads of state urged the UN to move ahead with the issue and bring those guilty to book.
It can be recalled that it was on the last day of the work of the UN Commission in Guinea, that Lt Diakité opened fire on his boss during an alleged attempt to have him (Diakité) arrested over the killings.
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