By Saliou Samb
CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea announced on Tuesday the death of its long-serving president, Lansana Conte, and a military officer said the government in the West African state was being replaced by a ruling council in an apparent coup.
In a broadcast on state radio announcing the suspension of the constitution, Captain Moussa Davis Camara said a self-styled National Council for Democracy and Development was taking over.
It was not immediately clear whether the initiative had the support of all of Guinea's military, or just one faction. Soldiers staged a mutiny over pay earlier this year.
The broadcast created confusion in the seaside capital Conakry hours after government leaders said Conte had died following nearly a quarter century of rule over the country, the world's leading exporter of bauxite aluminium ore.
Soldiers and police guarded the presidential palace and the central bank, witnesses said. Senior military officers were in consultations.
Journalists at state radio headquarters contacted by Reuters said a group of soldiers had entered the building and forced staff to broadcast the communique.
The statement read on the air by Capt. Camara said the constitution was suspended and the government dissolved. A transitional council of military and civilian members would be created in the coming days which would reflect "ethnic balance."
The broadcast cited what it called widespread corruption, impunity and anarchy and a "catastrophic economic situation" to justify the dissolving of the government. "The members of the current government are in large part responsible for this unprecedented economic and social crisis," it said.
The death of Conte, a diabetic, chain-smoking general, left a power vacuum in the bauxite exporter, where companies like Alcoa, Rio Tinto Alcan and Russia's RUSAL have major operations.
Guinea, most of whose people are poor, has experienced anti-government riots and strikes and bloody military mutinies in recent years, aggravated by rising prices of food and fuel.
When government leaders gathered to announce Conte's death, Armed Forces chief General Diarra Camara ordered troops to protect strategic sites and the former French colony's borders.
National Assembly President Aboubacar Sompare, accompanied by other officials and military officers, had said Conte had died on Monday night. Conte was believed to be 74.
Sompare had asked the country's Supreme Court to name him president in line with the constitution.
There was no immediate comment from him after the radio announcement of the government being dissolved. "The (national assembly) president can't talk for the moment because the military are still holding consultations," an aide said.
NATIONAL MOURNING
Guinea's constitution foresees the national assembly president taking over in the event of the death of the head of state and organising presidential elections in 60 days. Legislative elections were already planned for 2009.
"I have the heavy and difficult task to inform you with great sadness of the death of General Lansana Conte, President of the Republic of Guinea," Sompare said earlier on Tuesday.
Sompare declared 40 days of national mourning.
Although rumours that Conte was seriously ill had circulated for days, the government chose the early hours, when most people were sleeping, to announce his death. The streets were calm.
Conte, who said he was born around 1934, had governed Guinea since 1984 when he seized power after the country's first president, Sekou Toure, died in a U.S. hospital.
But he never groomed a clear successor.
Analysts said the way in which the military, a key pillar of support for Conte's rule, reacted to the news of his death would be crucial to the future stability of the country.
"The military obeyed Conte ... and now he's not there," one veteran local journalist told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Conte became reclusive in his later years of rule and often travelled abroad for medical treatment.
Veteran opposition leader Jean Marie Dore of the Union for the Progress of Guinea party, a fierce critic of Conte, said he was saddened by his death. "It is essential that the institutions function correctly and that the provisions of the constitution be respected," said Dore.
Last year, a general strike triggered anti-government riots in which more than 180 people were killed, most of them shot by Conte's forces, according to witnesses and human rights groups.
Analysts saw little impact on mining operations. "If you look at the history of Guinea and Guinea mining ... they have continued to mine, so the base assumption would be nothing really changes in the short term," said Julian Kettle, aluminium research manager at U.K.-based industry consultants Brook Hunt.
