News 11

Articles are in chronological order. Click on the link for the full article, as most are not quoted in full.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1636000/1636970.stm
>Sunday, 4 November, 2001, 11:54 GMT

>The opposition coalition in the West African state of Guinea has held
a
>week-long nationwide campaign to persuade people to vote against
proposed
>constitutional changes.
>Opposition leaders say the changes will effectively make President
Lansana
>Conte, president for life.
>The changes are to put to a referendum later this month.
>The BBC correspondent in Conakry says that the campaigners were
obstructed
>on
>several occasions by security forces loyal to the government, as they
tried
>to hold rallies in towns such as Kankan and Kindia.
>The opposition parties are being supported by western diplomats who
have
>warned that Guinea's aid programmes could be in jeopardy if the
government
>acts illegally to force the changes through.
>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

The Air Afrique strike ends but with only three planes
left in its possession, will it matter?

"Destablizing Guinea: Diamonds, Charles Taylor and the Potential for
Wider Humanitarian Catastrophe" by Lansana Gberie.

This 16-page report is Occasional Paper #1 of the Diamonds and Human
Security Project. The report traces the development of Guinea's diamond
industry from the first discoveries in the 1930s to the development of
an export certification scheme in 2001. It discusses the devastating
attacks on Guinea by Sierra Leonean rebels in 2000 and 2001, arguing
that the objective was part of a wider scheme to destabilize the region
and to further Liberian President Charles Taylor's regional economic
ambitions, in which diamonds play a major role. The report is available
electronically on the Internet at:
http://action.web.ca/home/pac/readingroom.shtml?AA_SL_Session=aedec8ae1f
82291641845c0ef763b2fa&sh_itm=411a64c349f4af4eec4068239c3504c2
(Sorry for the length of the URL.)

It is available in print format for $5.00 from:
Partnership Africa Canada
323 Chapel St.
Ottawa, ON K1N 7Z2

CNN ARTICLE ON AMNESTY STATEMENT
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/11/07/guinea.referendum.ap/index.html

AMNESTY PRESS RELEASE
http://www.web.amnesty.org/web/news.nsf/WebAll/09A28800B1C4B57580256AFC004425AC?OpenDocument

Guinea votes in crucial referendum
The presidents support lies in the military
By Alhassan Sillah in Conakry
Guinea is voting on Sunday in a constitutional
referendum on whether to prolong the mandate of current head of state, General
Lansana Conte. If passed, the amendment would allow President Conte
to run for a third term in office, and extend the presidential term from five
to seven years, But the move has been fraught with controversy. There
has been strong opposition, from the Speaker of the National Assembly,
El Hadj Bubacarr Biro Diallo.
"The legislature should be involved in any major
constitutional change," he said.
President Conte has been in power for 17 years. He
came to power in a bloodless coup in 1984 following the death of the
country's first head of state, Ahmed Sekou Toure.

Term limits
In 1992, when the new multi-party constitution was ushered in, it
limited any head of state to not more than two terms of five years
in office. The president's current term is due to end in 2003.

Conde: Disunity in opposition ranks is their downfall
The referendum was announced during independence day
celebrations on 2 October. The opposition remains clearly incensed by the move,
and insiders within the president's Party for Unity and Progress say would-be
successors are hatching plans.
But it is the opposition alliance, the Co-ordination for Democracy
(Codem), that has taken the lead in opposing the plan.

Personality split
The opposition appears to be operating under one
umbrella but there are divisions. Ba Mamadou, Codem's chairman in 1998 merged his
political party, the Union for Progress and Renewal with that of his Foulah
tribesman and compatriot, Siradiou Diallo. In the presidential elections of that year, Mr Mamadou
allowed Mr Diallo to run as presidential candidate for their merged party
because of his age. The constitution in force at that time barred Mr
Mamadou from standing. But when a constitutional change was made by
parliament earlier in the year that removed the age limit on presidential candidates,
the relationship between the two men and their supporters became
strained. What was thus considered as the largest opposition
bloc to Mr Conte, at least in terms of ethnic strength, became lost through a
split between the two men,
which is still growing.

Tax-free concessions
The Foulah ethnic tribesmen are also the leading
commercial traders in the country.

Conte has been in power for 17 years
President Conte has lost no time in taking advantage
of the turmoil in the Foulah ethnic ranks, by giving tax-free concessions to
key importers. Many of the key businessmen who would normally have
supported the opposition cause financially, now find themselves in Mr Conte's
camp. But perhaps the country's best alternative for a
change would have been in the celebrated opposition politician, Prof Alpha
Conde, leader of the Rally for the Guinean People. He was released from jail a few months ago following
his conviction for treason in the wake of the 1998 presidential election.

Unknown candidate
But even by the admission of his own supporters, Mr
Conde lacks grassroots support not because he is not liked, but simply
because he is not well known. Many of his supporters have either only seen his
photograph or his image on television.
He spends most of his time overseas, and comes home
only at election time - a strategy that is not conducive to African politics.
With Prof Conde lacking these vital political ingredients, it would seem
that Guineans' yearning for some intellectual leadership
would have to wait for sometime.

Ruling party supporters would be happy to see their
man get his way It seems the division within the opposition has also
denied it the use of some of its well known "bandits" or "area boys".
They have shied away from carrying out any sustained
protests against the regime and its referendum.
With the opposition is some disarray and with the
total support for him by the security forces, President Conte appears set to
organise and win his referendum.
And so Guinea and the rest of Africa is facing the first successful
third-term presidential bid in post one-party Africa.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1656000/1656752.stm
Wednesday, 14 November, 2001, 18:39 GMT

Guineans give Conte third term
Official results of a referendum in Guinea show
overwhelming approval for a proposal to change the
constitution so that President Lansana Conte
can run for a third term in office. 98% of votes cast
were in favour of the change and the turn-out was
87%, according to Territorial Administration and
Security Minister, Moussa Solano.
A BBC correspondent in Guinea says the results are
likely to cause widespread astonishment.
During Sunday's vote, journalists had reported a low
turn-out, following an opposition call for a boycott.
There has been no reaction yet from the opposition
parties. Mr Conte seized power in a military coup in
1985 and was due to step down within the next two
years.

-Prices in Conakry for most goods have increased
substantially during Ramadan (with the exception of
imported rice, bread and meat).

-A European Union delegation arrive in Conakry on
Saturday. The EU furnishes nearly 80% of public aid to
Guinea and had expressed it's "concerns" about the
referendum. Apparently, the EU is considering
sanctions against Guinea but nothing has been decided
yet

-The Guinean government has arrested Salifou Camara,
former president of Féguifoot, the Guinean soccer
federation. The arrest occurs shortly after Guinea was
re-admitted to FIFA, the world soccer federation,
after having been suspended from that body for
governmental interference in soccer affairs. A feud
between Camara and Sports' Minister Kadar Sangaré led
to the dissolution of the federation and new elections
saw the Gen. Conté's son elected head of the new
federation. This was rejected by FIFA. No word of any
official reason for the arrest.

-The Food and Agricultural Organization has announced
a plan for protection of the environment and the
agricultural integration of 190,000 Sierra Leonian and
Liberian refugees in the prefectures of Dabola and
Kissidougou. The project will be funded to the tune of
half a million dollars.

-I forget if I mentioned this earlier but the
legislative elections scheduled for 27 December have
been postponed until further notice. The elections
were also postponed in June 2000 when the National
Assembly's mandate theoretically ended (due to lack of
funding) and in late 2000 (due to the incursions in
the south of Guinea).

Bin Laden is financed by 'blood diamonds' from Sierra
Leone
Millions reaped from gems sold by rebel groups
Douglas Farah, Washington Post

URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/11/02/MN105351.DTL

Freetown, Sierra Leone -- The terrorist network led by
Osama bin Laden has reaped millions of dollars in the past three years
from the illicit sale of diamonds mined by rebels in Sierra Leone,
according to U.S. and European intelligence officials and two sources with
direct knowledge of events.

Diamond dealers working directly with men named by the
FBI as key operatives in bin Laden's al Qaeda network bought gems from the
rebel Revolutionary United Front at below-market prices and sold them for
large profits in Europe.

Investigators in the United States and Europe are
still trying to determine
how much money al Qaeda derived from its dealings with the rebels, but
they estimated the amount to be in the millions.

Since July, the sources said, the diamond dealers have
changed their tactics, buying far more diamonds than usual and
paying premium prices for them. Investigators say that is a strong
indication that al Qaeda, perhaps anticipating its accounts would be frozen
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, sought to
protect its money by sinking it into gemstones, a commodity that is easy to hide, holds its value and
is almost untraceable.

"When prices go up, and supply goes up, it means
someone is seeking to launder or hide cash, and we believe that is the case
here," a U.S. official said. "Diamonds don't set off alarms at airports, they
can't be sniffed by dogs, they are easy to hide, and (they) are highly
convertible to cash. It makes perfect sense."

REALIZATION RECENT
U.S. and European intelligence officials, overwhelmed
after Sept. 11 and with very few agents in West Africa, said they
realized only recently how important the diamond flow was to funding al Qaeda
and other terrorist organizations.

"I now believe that to cut off al Qaeda funds and laundering activities,
you have to cut off the diamond pipeline," said a European
investigator. "We are talking about millions and maybe tens of
millions of dollars in profits and laundering."

The diamonds are mined by Revolutionary United Front
rebels, who became infamous during the civil war for hacking off the arms
and legs of civilians and abducting thousands of children and forcing them
to fight as combatants. Sierra Leone's alluvial diamond fields were the principal prize in this
country's brutal civil war, and they have been under rebel control for
the past four years.

Small packets of diamonds, often wrapped in rags or
plastic sheets, are taken by senior rebel commanders across the porous
Liberian border to Monrovia,

according to sources. There, at a safe house protected
by the Liberian government led by President Charles Taylor, the
diamonds are exchanged for briefcases of cash brought by diamond dealers who
fly several times a month from Belgium to Monrovia, where they are
escorted by special state security through customs and immigration
control.

The diamond dealers are selected by Ibrahim Bah, a
Libyan-trained former rebel and the Revolutionary United Front's
principal diamond dealer,the sources said. The buyers' identities are known
only to Bah and a few others.

BATTLEFIELD CONTACTS
Bah's contacts and sympathies were forged on the
battlefield, according to intelligence reports and sources who know him well.

After fighting with the Casamance separatist movement
in Senegal in the 1970s, Bah trained in Libya under the protection of
Moammar Khadafy, the Libyan leader. Like bin Laden, he spent several
years in the early 1980s fighting alongside Muslim guerrillas against
Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
Bah then joined the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia to fight Israeli
forces in southern Lebanon before returning to Libya
at the end of the 1980s. In Libya, Bah met and trained several men who
would go on to lead rebellions in West Africa, including Taylor and Foday
Sankoh, the Revolutionary United Front's founder. Bah himself later fought in
both Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Now, according to intelligence sources and two people
who have worked with him, Bah acts as a conduit between senior rebel
commanders and the buyers from both al Qaeda and Hezbollah, a Shiite
Muslim organization linked to terrorist activities.

Bah, who lives in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, declined
through intermediaries to be interviewed for this article.

A U.N. panel of experts estimated the market value of
rebel "blood diamonds" sold in 1999 to be about $75 million. Sources in the
diamond trade estimate that the rebels receive less than 10 percent of market
value for the diamonds, paid mostly in weapons, food and medicine.
Taylor receives a commission on each transaction in Monrovia, and Bah
and the other brokers share the rest, according to sources involved the
dealings.

MILLIONS CALLED UNTRACEABLE
"Even if only 10 percent went to terrorist organizations, you are
talking about millions of dollars in virtually untraceable
funds, every year," said a European investigator.

In September 1998, Bah arranged for Abdullah Ahmed
Abdullah to visit Monrovia, according to two sources. Abdullah is
described on the FBI's recent Most Wanted Terrorists poster as a "top bin
Laden adviser" who "helped plan a number of al Qaeda's attacks."

After spending one night in Monrovia, the sources
said, Bah and Abdullah flew in a Liberian government helicopter to the town
of Foya, on the border with Sierra Leone. There, Abdullah met with a
senior Revolutionary United Front commander, Sam Bockerie, to discuss
buying diamonds on a regular basis.

A few weeks later, Bah arranged a visit for two more
al Qaeda operatives now on the FBI list, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and Fazul
Abdullah Mohammed,
the sources said. Together, they also met Bockerie,ntaking him $100,000
in cash and receiving a parcel of diamonds in an introductory deal, the
sources said.

Ghailani, the FBI alleges, is an al Qaeda operative
from Tanzania who helped buy a truck used in the 1998 bomb attack on the
U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam. Fazul, from the Comoros Islands, is
identified by the FBI as the "head of al Qaeda's Kenyan cell" and
trained at a bin Laden camp.