By Saliou Samb
CONAKRY (Reuters) - Thousands of Guineans on Wednesday cheered a young army captain chosen as de facto head of state by the military junta that took over the West African country in a coup after the death of President Lansana Conte.
The installation of Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara as leader of the world's top bauxite exporter went ahead despite international condemnation and statements opposing the coup from civilian leaders and the top military commander.
The coup leaders, calling themselves the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD), appeared unopposed in their control of the Guinean capital Conakry two days after Conte's death from illness opened up a power vacuum.
The junta declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
Excited crowds mobbed a convoy of military vehicles, led by a tank, which carried Camara in triumph through the streets of downtown Conakry. Some hailed him with shouts of "Obama junior," referring to U.S.-president elect Barack Obama.
Camara, brandishing a Guinean national flag and surrounded by soldiers in a military vehicle, waved to the crowd.
Earlier, at a meeting in the country's biggest military base, he was chosen to head the 32-member military junta which on Tuesday announced the suspension of the constitution and the government in what proved to be a military takeover. It has promised to hold elections in two years time.
The appointment of Camara was made by drawing lots, the Guinean web site www.guineenews.org reported.
"In the first instance, we're going to choose a civilian prime minister, who will run the administration," a senior junta member, Lt.-Col. Mathurin Bangoura told Reuters. But he said decisions would be taken "in a collegial fashion."
Before his promotion to junta leader, Camara was little known and was reported to be serving in the army's Supply Corps as head of the fuel section.
Earlier, the West African state's top civilian leader, National Assembly President Aboubacar Sompare, who under the constitution should have taken over as interim head of state, appealed to the world to prevent the coup from succeeding.
PROMISE OF ELECTIONS
The pro-coup forces moved freely and unopposed around the sprawling coastal capital Conakry and were arresting potential opponents, witnesses and police sources said. One heavily armed group entered the central bank.
In a televised statement broadcast earlier in the day, Camara, wearing a uniform and red beret, defended the coup as "a civic act ... to save a people in distress."
"The National Council for Democracy and Development commits to organise credible and transparent elections for the end of December 2010," he said.
Many said they supported the takeover by the military.
"The coup is a good thing, otherwise the old leaders would carry on their dirty business of looting the state," said electrician Naby Laye Traore.
But the United Nations, African Union, European Union and United States all condemned the latest breakdown in democracy in Africa, which follows post-election turmoil in Kenya and Zimbabwe and an August military coup in Mauritania.
"We want to see civilian, democratic rule restored in Guinea as soon as possible," U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. Washington was examining means of exerting pressure including possibly withholding U.S. aid to the country.
The AU's Peace and Security Council asked the West African regional bloc ECOWAS to send a mission to Guinea. "We strongly recommend Guinea return as soon as possible to constitutional legality," council chairman Patrick Sinyinza said.
Earlier, the junta had announced the names of its 32 members, six of them civilians. Besides Camara, they included General Mamadou "Toto" Camara, head of the land army.
The coup went ahead in the political vacuum left by the death of Conte, the diabetic chain-smoking general who had ruled the country with an iron fist since seizing power in 1984.
Analysts had predicted the passing of Conte, who had relied on the fractious military to keep him in power and survived a number of coup plots, would trigger renewed instability marked by military, political and possibly inter-ethnic infighting.
The country's important bauxite mining operations and shipments, run by major international companies, were not immediately affected by the latest crisis.
