Guinea to bury Conte and junta tries to woo support
CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea prepared to bury Lansana Conte on Friday and the military junta which seized power after the president's death appealed for international support to lead the country to elections in two years.
Four days after Conte died in the West African bauxite exporter, leaving a power vacuum which led to a coup by young army officers, the body of the longtime leader was due to be buried on Friday with national honours.
National TV and radio played songs and music in praise of Conte, the diabetic chain-smoking general who had ruled the former French colony with an iron fist since himself seizing power in 1984.
The coup junta led by its appointed president, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, now the country's de facto leader, has promised to stamp out nepotism and graft, hold elections in 2010 and improve living standards. Most Guineans live in poverty, even though the country is the world's top exporter of aluminium ore bauxite.
"Now we need to be supported by the World Bank and by these kinds of institutions, so we can have the financial conditions to carry out this mission," the vice-president of the junta, General Mamadouba Toto Camara, told reporters.
Friday was declared a public holiday to allow people to attend the funeral. Conte's body was to be exhibited at the People's Palace, the national stadium and the main mosque before being taken to his home town for burial.
The sprawling coastal capital Conakry was calm.
The United States, the European Union and the African Union have all condemned the coup, which has again battered democratic rule in Africa, already tarnished by post-election crises in Kenya and Zimbabwe and an August coup in Mauritania.
The coup leaders said they wanted to make a clean break with the quarter century of rule by Conte, which had concentrated power in the hands of a small, privileged political, military and business elite.
Thousands of Guineans acclaimed junta leader Camara, a little-known captain in the army supply corps, after the coup. Even opposition parties have cautiously welcomed the military takeover, but have called for earlier elections, in 2009.
"PEACE, FREEDOM, RECONCILIATION"
Deposed Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare endorsed the coup on Thursday, reversing his initial opposition, and junta No. 2 Camara said members of the former government could join the new administration.
"We don't reject anyone ... but what we are going to end in this country from now on is graft and impunity," he said.
Older, senior military officers who were not part of the coup, such as armed forces chief of staff General Diarra Camara, have also now rallied behind it.
Earlier, junta president Capt. Camara told France 24 TV he had no intention of clinging to power. "We must hold an election, free and transparent, in a dignified way to honour Guinea, to honour the Guinean army. The future of our country is peace, freedom, reconciliation," he said.
He said he would not stand in the planned election.
The last two years of Conte's rule were marked by bloody anti-government strikes and riots, in which dozens of civilians were killed by security forces, and by violent army and police mutinies over pay. There have also been increasing protests over high food and fuel prices.
The United States said the military in Guinea must work with civilian leaders to restore civilian rule quickly.
"The United States condemns the military coup ... We reject the announcement by elements of the Guinean military that elections will not be held for two years and we call for an immediate return to civilian rule," said a U.S. statement.
"The human rights of all citizens must be respected, particularly those of Prime Minister Souare and the members of his government," it said.
Mining operations have not been affected by the coup.
International companies including Rio Tinto, Alcoa and United Company Rusal mine in Guinea for bauxite.