Guinea's Only Private Newspaper Silenced

Pita Erupts in Rioting

��������������� On Tuesday November 2, rioting broke out in the Fouta Djallon town of Pita, after EDG, the national electricity company, delivered bills to subscribers reflecting a sharp rise in residential rates. Angry residents ransacked the local EDG office, destroying computers and burning vehicles belonging to the company. Security services fired live ammunition on the crowd of rioters, causing one death and a number of injuries.

��������������� Military reinforcements were sent to Pita from Lab� and Mamou, and the town was placed under a tight curfew, with soldiers firing their weapons into the air to prevent people from leaving their homes. During the night 53 persons were arrested. On Wednesday authorities refused to allow a public funeral for the civilian killed by police gunfire on Tuesday, described in press reports as "a young student," requiring that he be buried privately by his family.

��������������� On Tuesday November 16, a "meeting of reconciliation" was held between prefectoral officials, EDG representatives, local responsables and sages, and representatives of civil society and the Islamic League. At this meeting the Prefect of Pita, Ibrahima Bangoura, announced that 50 of the 53 people originally arrested had been released after having admitted their complicity in destruction of property during the riot. Three were still under detention at the prison in Pita. Mr. Bangoura also formally requested that EDG not collect payment on the electricity bills whose unexpected increases had caused the riots.

��������������� In the interior of Guinea, electric meters are unknown and residential consumers pay a flat rate. According to Aboubacar Bah, a resident of Virginia who was able to contact his family in Pita, the November bills reflected an increase from 6,000 gnf to 60,000 gnf in the monthly rate. Customers had received no prior warning of this 1,000% increase in rates. Another source of resentment, he said, was that electricity produced in Pita at the Kinkon hydroelectric facility is exported to Mamou, Dalaba and Lab�. "Where is the money from those places?" he asked. "That money is supposed to be for investment in Pita." Mr. Bah said negotiations between EDG and the community had subsequently led to an outcome acceptable to both sides: a 100% increase in monthly residential rates from 6,000 gnf to 12,000 gnf. "Everything is calm now," he said.

CALM RETURNS AFTER KAMSAR RIOTS
-Guineenews: http://www.boubah.com/Articles/index.asp?Id=1154 and http://www.boubah.com/Articles/index.asp?Id=1146

Calm has returned to Kamsar after riots on 20 Jan. That day, a protest against power cuts in the industrial port city erupted into violence. Protesters burned the sous-prefecture's offices and block bauxite trains from moving. The army intervened with tear gas. The city was in a state of emergency for a few days. The protesters also sacked the central electricity generating plant (how this would help with the power cuts is not clear).


GUINEA SOCCER TEAM WINS AFRICAN CUP OPENER
-BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/3426239.stm

The Guinean national soccer team beat the DR Congo in Tunis. The Syli won by 2 goals to 1 in their Group A encounter of the African Cup of Nations with goals by Pascal Feindouno and Titi Camara. They play tomorrow at 8 AM ET against newcomers Rwanda and on Sunday at the same time against hosts Tunisia.

FOUR SOCCER FANS DIE IN CONAKRY CELEBRATIONS
-BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3431721.stm

The BBC reports: "Thousands of fans took to the streets in the capital, Conakry, to celebrate but trouble began following some theft. In the confusion that followed three people died in a car crash and another person was run over. The BBC's Abdourahmane Diallo in Conakry says the police have now asked for the public to stay home during Guinea's future matches at the competition in Tunisia to prevent further trouble."

FOUR GUINEANS DIE IN ARSON ATTACK IN BROOKLYN

Four members of an extended family from Pita, Guinea, including an
18-month-old girl, died in an arson attack allegedly aimed at someone living in the
basement of their building.

NOTE: If you haven't looked at the New York Times Web site before, you
will have to register, but the registration is free.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/nyregion/18fire.html

GUINEA RIOT OVER MOBILE NUMBERS.
The lack of mobile telephone numbers leads to riots in the Guinean
capital, Conakry. Citizens riot because certain vendors were buying up mobile numbers and selling at a premium.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4023101.stm >

GUINEA: Prime Minister quits after two months
during visit to Paris

CONAKRY, 3 May (IRIN) - Guinea's Prime Minister,
Francois Fall, has resigned and gone into exile after
just two months in the job, protesting that President
Lansana Conte was blocking his attempts at political
and economic reform.

Fall, a respected former foreign minister and Guinean
representative at the United Nations, submitted his
resignation last Thursday while attending a meeting of
the River Niger Basin Authority in Paris. Political
sources in Conakry said he had taken the precaution of
taking his family out of the country before announcing
his departure.

Fall's letter of resignation was subsequently
published on the Canada-based Guinean news website
Boubah.com and the French current affairs weekly Jeune
Afrique Intelligent. His decision to quit was widely
reported by independent newspapers in Conakry, but
five days later, it was still being ignored by
state-run radio and television.

Government officials refused to comment on Fall's
almost unprecedented decision to resign of his own
accord in a country where ministers normally only
leave office when they are fired by the president.

It was not clear on Monday whether or not any other
members of Fall's team would also quit, but political
sources said government changes might well be
announced following the regular weekly cabinet meeting
on Tuesday.

Fall was appointed prime minister on 23 February to
lead a new government with a reforming face following
Conte's re-election for a further seven-year term in
last December's presidential election. This was
boycotted by all of Guinea's mainstream opposition
parties. They subsequently claimed that the poll -
which gave Conte 95 percent of the vote - was riddled
with fraud.

Fall said in his letter of resignation that he had
quit because "anachronistic practices" and the
"continuing lack of dialogue" between members of the
government, between the government and the opposition
and between the government and international donors,
had made his task impossible.

He particularly complained that his attempts to reform
the economy, renegotiate Guinea's external debt,
launch a new dialogue with the European Union and
clean up the justice system had been blocked.

The EU has promised to release 240 million euros
($US280 million) of aid witheld from Guinea if only
the government will agree to certain political and
economic reforms to improve the quality of governance
in this poor and notoriously corrupt country.

Fall told Radio France Internationale (RFI) that he
was particularly frustrated by the government's
harassment of Sidya Toure, a former prime minister,
who is now a major opposition figure. Toure was
repeatedly questioned by the security services last
month about an alleged coup plot against Conte, who
has ruled Guinea with an iron hand since 1984. He has
now been charged with plotting against the president
and has banned from leaving Conakry.

"I was completely unable to carry out properly the
mission entrusted to me. The president vetoes
everything. So I decided to quit," Fall told
Jeune Afrique Intelligent.

The former prime minister told RFI that he announced
his resignation from the safety of France because his
life would have been in danger had he unveiled the
move while he was still at home. "If I had done so in
Conakry my security would have been in danger," he
said.

Fall suggested to Jeune Afrique that Toure, who
managed the economy with some success betwen 1996 and
1999, would be a good man to head a new elected
government in Guinea, should the army take power and
depose the ailing 70-year-old president with the aim
of creating a genuine democracy for the first time in
the former French colony.

Diplomats say Conte suffers from diabetes and heart
disease and is now barely able to walk. State
television showed pictures of the president
casting his vote while sitting in the front seat of
his car during last December's election.

FURTHER ECONOMIC DECLINE EXPECTED AS DONORS QUIT

[This Item is Delivered to the English Service of the
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[email protected]

Conakry,6/29/2004 (IRIN) - Foreign donors said the halt in World Bank
loan disbursements to Guinea was due to aggravate a worrying economic
situation in a country where the population is already starved of essential goods
and services.

The International Development Association (IDA), the Bank's lending arm
for the poorest countries, announced last week it had halted the
disbursement of further loans to Guinea by mid-June and suspended field
projects following the government's failure to pay off debt servicing
arrears of US $2.4 million.

"Everything has come to an end," said a Conakry-based Bank official,
who declined to be named. "We did our best so far but the government
doesn't make enough effort, the situation is becoming very bad for the
population," he added.

Donor sources said the annual average inflation rate rose to 13 percent
in 2003 from 6.8 percent in 2000, reflecting imprudent monetary management
and climbing import prices.

Over the last 15 years, rice and other staple-foods have seen a
six-fold price-rise, while salaries for civil servants have stayed at the same
level.

"The poorest will suffer more from the deterioration of the economic
crisis than anyone else," said one official at the Ministry of Social
Affairs in Conakry.

The IDA, which provides some US $30 million of budgetary support to
Guinea each year, is the last on a long list of foreign donors to suspend its
cooperation with the authorities.

The International Monetary Fund withdrew from Guinea two years ago,
leaving the country without economic guidelines.

The IMF also suspended its US $800 million-debt relief mechanism, the
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, agreed in 2000 to
help Guinea advance its poverty reduction programme.

Exiting donors have deplored bad governance, lack of transparency in
the management of public expenses, corruption and improper economic
practices.

In one of its last papers on Guinea, published in 2002, the IMF
deplored fiscal slippages in 2001 that stemmed from significant revenue
shortfalls and higher-than-programmed spending on defence.

"These slippages led to expenditure cuts in priority sectors, which -
while helping contain the fiscal deficit - resulted in a distribution
of expenditure that did not advance the poverty reduction objectives of
the programme," the IMF said.

Former Guinean Prime Minister, Francois Fall, severely denounced those
practices when he resigned in May, after just two months in the job.
From the safety of exile in France, Fall was later highly critical of
President Lansana Conte and accused him of blocking attempts at
political and economic reform.

Fall particularly complained that Conte, a former army colonel who came
to power in a 1984 coup, was an obstacle to economic reform, renegotiation
of external debt and the prospects of launching a new dialogue with the
European Union.

The EU, a leading donor to Guinea, halted annual budgetary support
worth about 40 million euros ($49 million) in 1998 amid concerns over bad
governance, officials from the Conakry delegation said.

The EU continues to support development in Guinea through
non-governmental projects in infrastructure provision, rural development, food security
and good governance.

However, with no dialogue between the EU and Guinea, a 221 million euro
(US$ 49 million) package promised to Guinea under a five-year programme
between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP)
has been locked. Dispersal of funds could have begun two years ago.

"We're faced with many difficulties in Guinea," said a member of the EU
delegation. "There's no political dialogue, which is a preliminary for
delivering aid assistance to the government," he added.

However, EU officials said they were committed to a resumption of
dialoguw and hoped to sit down with Guinean authorities in Brussels next month.
An agenda has yet to be set up.

"I think Guineans want to discuss, but it's clear that they don't want
Europeans to lay down the law," a UN senior official said.

Guinea had declined an invitation to Brussels in April, said EU
officials, but they expected a change of heart before a newly set deadline of
mid-July.

"Guinea has no choice: at least half of the Guinean budget comes from
external loans, and most of the payments have been suspended so far," a
World Bank official said.

He warned that the suspension of the IDA's loans would cause
disruptions on aid programmes with finance for AIDS, education and health projects
interrupted.

"We have US $250 million to use in the social sectors here but we're
sorry: the country is just not performing," the official said.

Donors worried about the impact: "We fear that more field projects will
end because of the suspension of payments," said a Bank official in
Conakry, talking on conditions of anonymity.

Public investment in local services, including hospitals, has failed to
materialise over the past year, said government officials in both
Conakry and the outer provinces.

In the remote Forest Region, in southern Guinea, the last public
investment in hydraulic and electric services or highway
infrastructures was in 1961. Since then, the population of the region has increased by
five.

"We're worried, it's a very bad sign for us," said the Fadama Kourouma,
head of social affairs for the Forest Region. "French cooperation has already suspended and as a result we've lost a
great grassroots development project based on community participation and fight against poverty," he said.

"It was one of the last which was still on track and it has not been
replaced," he added. "We feel abandoned."

FOREST REGION STRAINED BY INFLUX OF RETURNING RESIDENTS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41985&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=GUINEA


NZEREKORE, 2 Jul 2004 (IRIN) - Guineans who have returned home following instability or persecution in neighbouring countries, are placing a critical strain on the already weak social services of the Region Forestiere, said aid workers and government officials.

Amadou Diallo is one of the Guineans who fled western Cote d’Ivoire, where he lived for fifteen years, as soon as fighting erupted between government forces and rebels in January 2003.

Now 45-years old, Diallo a mechanic by trade, left the Ivorian town of Guiglo with his seven children to take refuge in Nzoo, a small Guinean hamlet a few kilometres across the lightly controlled border.

Stuck in a small wet house, with 10 other family members, he complained about unemployment and soaring food prices that prevent the entire family from covering their essential needs.

"We have no jobs here and we're too many," Diallo said. “It's impossible to eat well and to pay the school fees, it's too expensive," he added with a shrug.

"The kids? They're always suffering from malaria: they're too weak," said Diallo as he pointed to two old mats on the kitchen floor - the children’s beds.

Between 75,000 to over 100,000 Guineans fled Cote d’Ivoire following a rise in anti-foreigner sentiment after a period of civil war between September 2002 and December 2003, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) 2003 survey carried out with the authorities’ help.

The stream of returnees continued until December 2003, before slowing down sharply after security was restored by UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, a UN disarmament programme was launched in Liberia and a fragile cease-fire was reinforced in Cote d’Ivoire, local officials said.

Most of the returnees found shelter in tired-out local communities in the thickly wooded part of southern Guinea known as Guinee Forestiere, which includes the prefecture of Nzerekore.

In the communities along the border, returnees make up about eight percent of the total population, said OCHA. Of these, 50 percent are children, and their presence is placing particular strain on education services, especially in the smaller villages, they said.

The Guinean returnees have little support, less then refugees, though the conditions faced by the two groups have much in common, said OCHA. However, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) can sometimes help returnees and hosted communities with food and equipment for schools and clinics, but the initiatives are timid.

While the increased population has put a strain on resources, incomes have also taken a battering as cross border trade has slumped.

“Before the coup in Cote d’Ivoire, trade between both countries was abundant,” Colonel Lamine Bangoura, the governor of the Region Forestiere, told IRIN.

“But now the trade has almost stopped and because we host all these people, we’re short of basic food and livestock,” he added.

Areas along the borders experienced close ties to the communities on the other side. Traders and agro-pastoral farmers attended markets on either side of the borders to buy and sell their mainly agricultural goods.

Officially the borders are closed, though authorities tolerate a laissez-faire policy for “humanitarian reasons”.

“Humanely, we cannot let the population go on suffering,” said the governor Bangoura. “There are unofficial movements of people, even if the borders are officially closed.”

Though trade does still go on, the volume is lower and prices of staples such as rice, palm oil or meat, have soared across Guinea. In some areas foodstuffs have increased by as much as 120 percent since September 2002 while incomes have stagnated or declined.

In the market in Nzerekore, rice costs 60,000 Guinea Francs (around US$30) for a 50kg sack while the average monthly wage is less than US$20, a local trader told IRIN.

But still communities are trying to support the returnees and share what little they have.

The trader hosts a family of five who came back to Nzerekore with nothing. They eke out a living labouring in the fields for just 500 Guinean Francs, or US 20 cents a day.

“They are dependent on us,” he said. “But we cannot tell you that we’re tired: they are Africans, they’re suffering, they’re our brothers and sisters,” he added with a smile.

According to government representative, the Commandant Algassimou Barry, Nzerekore cannot welcome any more people.

“The town is stuffed full: our infrastructures were built to host 100,000 inhabitants. At the moment we are five times more than that and we have received no funds from Conakry this year,” he said.

“Before conflicts, Nzerekore was a nerve centre for trade in the region, attracting people from abroad,” Commandant Barry said. “But now it’s a place for poverty, the social services and structures don’t work any more.”

At the local hospital, officials despair as children weakened with hunger and malnutrition, increasingly die of malaria.

“Guinean children don’t eat enough and don’t have a varied enough diet to get better,” a senior official who asked to stay anonymous said. “The families have no money to send them to the hospital and when they do, it’s often too late.”

Nearly nine of every 100 children who visited the hospital died this year and officials warned it could only get worse as the hospital has not received any government funding this year.

The Guinean government is feeling the squeeze after the World Bank last month joined a long list of donors who have withdrawn financial support to the country over concerns of accountability.

“As the State cannot meet needs, we’ll be obliged to make the patients pay and to promote co-financing partnership with local communities,” the hospital official said. “We can cure the poorest but not all of them: we still have to buy the medicines and pay the nursing staff.”

Government officials warned that is not just hospitals that are suffering.

“We’re dying at the hospital, schools are not equipped with material or teacher capacity and the students cram into rooms full to bursting,” an official at the regional social services told IRIN under conditions of anonymity.

In the Beyla region, north of Nzerekore, where some 40,000 returnees from Cote d’Ivoire integrated with difficulty with the hosted communities, things are even worse.

“I am a civil servant with no financial and technical means to assess the situation or to help them confront the situation,” he said.

Local government officials are worried that frustrations and misery could erupt into violence especially as some of the returnees and urban refugees were combatants from neighbouring wars.

Officials and aid workers noted that the security has been reinforced in town, but the situation remained fragile with armed young men mounting roadblocks in the night.

“From one day to the next, the situation can explode and Guinea could fall over,” the governor, a former army officer, said. “We should be extremely careful.”

MORE ATTACKS ON RICE TRUCKS DESPITE GOV'T MOVES TO RESTORE CALM

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

July 9, 2004
Posted to the web July 9, 2004

Conakry

Despite efforts by Guinean President Lansana Conte to diffuse tensions
over rising rice prices, gangs of angry youths attacked food trucks in
the capital Conakry on Thursday night, forcing police to shoot into the air
to disperse the crowd, witnesses said on Friday.

People living in the Gbessia neighbourhood near Conakry airport said
youths stormed trucks carrying rice and flour on Thursday evening.
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The security forces opened fire, sending residents fleeing. Hundreds of
protesters then pelted policemen with stones and bottles and chanted
anti-government slogans, eyewitnesses said.

As news of the disturbances spread, youths in other parts of the city
began holding up private vehicles, threatening to smash their
windscreens unless the driver and passengers paid them money.

Informal reports circulating on the streets of the capital said two
youths had been killed by police during the disturbances. Police denied the
reports.

The latest violence came two days after Conte, spurred into action by a
rash of attacks on rice trucks last week, tried to quell mounting anger
at the spiralling cost of Guinea's staple food.

Rice currently sells on the free market for up to $30 per 50 kg bag --
more than many Guineans earn in a month.

Conte on Tuesday ordered private buyers to sell special stocks of
government-supplied rice at a controlled price of 40,000 Guinean francs
or US $14 a bag.

He also suspended more than 100 elected officials in the capital,
accusing them of stealing such rice, which had previously been sold by the
government under their supervision from special depots.

Guinea once exported large quantities of rice, but today its eight
million people - especially the two million inhabitants of Conakry - are
heavily dependent on imports. And with the Guinean franc depreciating rapidly,
the price of rice in local currency terms has been climbing rapidly

One opposition leader told IRIN privately that Conte, who has ruled
Guinea with an iron hand for 20 years, was simply making the local officials
into scapegoats for the much bigger problem of rampant corruption at the top
levels of government.

Others have blamed the rising price of Guinea's basic foodstuff on a
chronic shortage of foreign exchange caused by the country's steady
economic decline, falling returns from exports and the unwillingness of
western donors to give money to the government."

GUINEA HIT BY HIGH RICE PRICES
Carrie Giardino
Abidjan
15 Jul 2004, 14:09 UTC
Voice of America.

Visit this link to hear the audio version: http://www1.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=25FBD20A-6108-4371-A119D8CF8E77EEDD

Angry crowds have attacked trucks carrying rice and looted food warehouses in Guinea, where the price of rice has risen well beyond the income of most people and shortages have emptied stores in many areas. Analysts say food shortages in Guinea could plunge the country into political chaos.

DISCOVERING AFRICA THROUGH A PHOTOGRAPHER'S LENS

BY ANGELINA BELLEBUONO

Morgan County Citizen, June 15

http://morgancountycitizen.com/gbase/Expedite/Content?oid=oid%3A1839

Recent Morgan High School graduate Chase Lanier received more than the typical pen and pencil set for his 12 years of academic diligence. Bill and Peggy Lanier of Buckhead sent their grandson to Africa for his high school graduation.

And while many recent graduates were sunning on beaches and reminiscing with friends, Chase Lanier took cold showers and charged his camera batteries using a car battery.

He rode nine hours in a car moving along roads rough with potholes and spent the night alone in a hotel in Newark, N.J. And for most of the two weeks he spent in the remote African village of Kankalabe, this teenager had only the clothes he was wearing when he left the Atlanta airport enroute to Conakry, a city on the western coast of Africa.

Lanier made it to the airport in Conakry. His checked baggage didn’t. But clothes apparently weren’t important to this young photographer whose two carry-on bags were filled only with his camera gear and his laptop.

Lanier’s destination was the home of his aunt and uncle,who have worked as missionaries in Africa for the past ten years. His purpose, however, was almost completely confined to the images that he would work to capture through the lens of his camera.

"Everything there was a picture," said Lanier. From the moment he stepped onto African soil, Lanier captured images to bring home.

Shooting mainly with a digital SLR, Lanier had to plan carefully, charging batteries for his laptop and his camera whenever he could find access to electricity, including sources like the solar power at his relatives’ home or the lucky day he could hook up to a generator.

"I said to myself, ‘All right, I’ve got 100 percent charge on my battery. I’m going to take some pictures.’"

Early in the trip, Lanier learned of the natives’ distrust for foreigners. Several times, he was met with angry glances, and often, the subject of his attempted photo would demand payment.

Lanier also met some challenges in executing landscape photos. During one particularly striking sunset, a man confronted Lanier as he was composing the picture that has since become one of Lanier’s favorite from the trip. When the man told Lanier that he would need permission from the authorities to photograph the sunset, Lanier tried to acquiesce, but eventually ignored the man and took the pictures.

"Obviously they have the sunset copyrighted in Guinea," Lanier said, laughing.

Lanier also met friendly people, including a young native man who spoke impeccable English, which, according to Lanier, was a pleasant surprise. With the exception of the missionaries he encountered, Lanier had little opportunity to communicate with the people. "It really helps to know the language," he said.

Without the benefit of communication, Lanier let himself speak through his lens, bringing home over 1500 pictures of a place that most Morgan County residents have never even noticed on a map.

A young man and his camera in Africa. A story told better through images than words.

MINER DIGS UP 182 CARAT GEM -- AND TROUBLE

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/07/19/guinea.big.diamond.ap/index.html

cnn.com, July 19 2004

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) -- There's lucky: Finding a diamond when you're a young miner sweating it out in the west African forests of Guinea. And there's too lucky: finding a 182-carat stone that everyone -- starting with the government of Guinea -- wants a piece of.

Result: the stone -- four times the size of the famous Hope diamond -- was tucked away Monday deep in the vaults of Guinea's Central Bank. No pictures, please.

And the 25-year-old miner who found it, if not exactly in hiding, was making himself scarce. No interviews, please.

State radio in impoverished, mineral-rich Guinea announced the find last week. Guinea mining industry officials confirmed Monday that the newly dug-up stone -- though not flawless -- was a fortune in the rough.

"It's a quite brilliant diamond, of good enough quality despite having numerous veins. One thing is certain -- it's worth millions of dollars," a top official with the Aredor mining company, Guinea's biggest diamond operation, told The Associated Press.

The Guinea gem is 4 inches by 1.2 inches high -- roughly the size and shape of your average computer mouse.

The Hope diamond, by contrast, is 45.52 carats.

The largest diamond ever found, the Cullinan, was a gaudy bowling-ball size beauty at 3,106 carats in the rough.

Freelance discoveries of big diamonds in west and central Africa typically touch off fierce, fast-buck feeding frenzies, pitting the finders and first-round buyers against would-be moneymakers higher up the food chain.

Finders, terrified, have been known to flee into the bush rather than dare bring their find to market.

In Congo in 2000, the government confiscated a 265-carat stone and jailed its local buyer for a month, freeing both only after massive public protests. That stone eventually went at auction in Israel for an industry-estimated, unconfirmed $13 million to $20 million.

Industry officials and diplomats in Guinea on Monday would discuss the find only on condition of anonymity.

The miner, who was not identified, struck his shovel on the stone at a dig in southeast Guinea, bordering Ivory Coast and Liberia.

Authorities gave few other details of the diamond's first hours and days in the light. It was clear, however, that the rock's time with its discoverer was brief.

By Monday, the gem was in the capital, Conakry, behind steel doors at the guarded Central Bank.

The young miner had no choice, a Western diplomat said -- he might have been killed if he hadn't turned it over to the authorities.

An Associated Press reporter, visiting the area of the find, was unable to locate the young miner.

Diamonds, along with aluminum ore and gold, are among the top exports of Guinea, a resource-rich but virtually undeveloped country whose people live on less than $1 a day.

The Aredor mining company, using heavy equipment in high-dollar operations, turns up an average of 30,000 carats each year.

Small-scale miners like the 25-year-old, with no more overhead than the cost of a spade, produce 300 to 400 carats a year here.

The 182-carat stone came from a site owned by the government, and leased to miners.

Miners are believed to slip many smaller finds into their pockets, taking the stones out for smuggling and avoiding the government and any cuts it would take.

Especially since it was found on government land, the gem's discoverer may have believed bypassing Guinea's officials too risky in this case, experts said.

Authorities were to inspect the stone later this week and offer an official estimate. The finder -- if luck holds -- would likely receive an undetermined percentage of that, industry officials said.

NEW CHOLERA OUTBREAK CLAIMS 10 LIVES IN GUINEA

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040917/hl_afp/guinea_health_cholera_040917145032

Fri Sep 17,10:50 AM ET

CONAKRY (AFP) - An outbreak of cholera has killed at least 10 people
out of 30 recorded cases in
central Guinea, health officials said.

The outbreak, which has been contained, affected primarily children and
the elderly, a doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP from the town of Pita, 400
kilometers (240 miles) northeast of the capital.

Medicine was swiftly dispatched to the area and the most severe cases
were taken to hospital in Conakry in a bid to determine the origins of the outbreak.

Cholera has made a resurgence this year owing to heavy rains across the
region that have helped to spread the water-borne bacterial illness.

Signs of cholera include cramping, nausea and diarrhea. The disease can
be fatal without treatment.

Doctors blame "unhygienic practices" of most people for cholera
transmission, imploring them to wash their hands after using the toilet and to take greater care in
preparing and handling food.

Guinea's southern neighbor Sierra Leone has been battling its own
deadly cholera outbreak, the first in the war-ravaged country in more than four years, but health
officials there said that it appears to have been contained.

"The epidemic outbreak in the eastern part of Freetown has simmered off
and many of the patients reporting at clinics and hospitals are being treated and sent home,"
said Doctor Alhassan Sesay, director of the center for disease control and prevention.

More than 60 people have died since early August, mostly in and around
Freetown, where the already decrepit sanitation system was overwhelmed by more than a month of
torrential rain that sent raw sewage seeping into the streets.

Western Guinea was hit by a cholera outbreak in June of last year,
which claimed 83 lives from 183 reported cases.

The archipelago of Yeliboya, perched in the Atlantic Ocean near Guinea,
is traditionally dubbed the "cholera gateway" for the west African neighbors. Vaccines and
other medicines were rushed to the islands in recent weeks to quell the latest outbreak among its
people, many of whom make a living from fishing.

DIARY OF A PINAY PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER

About a PCV in Guinea, written by a Guinea PCV

By Pam Pastor
Inquirer News Service

September 8, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

A LOT of people born into the lap of comfort would be content to just enjoy a laidback and easy life.

But not Cristina Dela Rosa.

She abandoned her comfortable life in the United States for two years and found a new home in West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Born in Los Angeles to Filipino parents, hers was a happy childhood of good schools (she studied at Marymount, a reputable private Catholic school), piano and clarinet lessons and basketball games.

Passionate and zealous, Tina's drive to excel was evident early on.

She spent her college life at the University of California, Irvine, where she was part of the women's rowing team. Although she wanted to pursue her dreams of becoming a lawyer, she realized that she wasn't ready to plunge into post-graduate studies right after leaving the university and left for East Africa to teach. She inspired me. I looked into it. After each thing I read, it just sounded better and better."

She spent a long time making her decision. "I'm gonna be selfish and say that I love to travel and see new things and try things out of the ordinary. I thought it was the perfect way to take a break, do something different, sharpen my language skills and dip my feet into the international sector and see how that feels for me."

But selfish isn't a word people would use to describe this twenty-five-year-old.

She has always been active in volunteer projects, tutoring inner city kids and working for At/Risk Youth, an organization that takes care of adolescent boys who are taken away from their parents because of neglect, child abuse and sexual abuse.

Given her background as a volunteer, her decision to apply for the Peace Corps shouldn't have been a surprise. In the beginning, her parents were apprehensive but Tina knew they would understand. After all, the giving spirit is alive in them as well. Her mom Becky, a nurse in the US, has projects of her own. "She is active in sending medical supplies to hospitals in the Philippines," her daughter says.

In her senior year at the university, she began her application. "I filled out a general application and sent that in. Then I set up an interview with the regional recruiter in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. He asked me about my job and volunteer experiences, why I wanted to go there, basically my whole life story," she recalls.

After the interview, the recruiter went through a file database from the Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington DC to nominate Tina for a position. "I was hoping to go to West Africa. I knew I could probably teach high school there," she says.

When she was nominated, Tina had to go through medical, dental and legal clearance. But that wasn't the hurdle. It was unfortunate that right after she sent her forms to Washington DC, the anthrax scare started. She had to resend everything. By the middle of January, her application was cleared. All she had to do was wait for the invitation to go overseas.

Fast goodbye
It came in April. Just eight days after receiving her degrees in Psychology and Sociology, at the age of 23, Tina began her journey. "I did as much research as I could on Guinea, I had to pack and say goodbye. It was really fast, almost too fast."

To many, the thought of packing for two years may sound like hell, but Tina had no problems leaving excesses behind. "You only need sandals and rubber shoes--that's all. You can get clothes there. I brought journals because I write a lot, I brought tapes and a Walkman, I brought a lot of pictures. It was mostly the pictures--it was important to show the people there my family and where I come from."

After her orientation in Philadelphia where she met 20 other Peace Corps volunteers who would leave with her, she was on her way to Guinea.

"It was raining really hard when we got there. Guinea is a very poor country, probably one of the poorest in the world. There's really no building maintenance, you see a lot of beggars on the streets. The whole setting was something I had never seen before--maybe just in a magazine. I was really wondering what I was getting myself into. I just couldn't say anything, I just stared."

Still, Tina took a head-on plunge into the training. "It took twelve weeks. Each person had to live with a host family. They helped you see the typical African lifestyle, they helped you get used to the food, helped you with the language."

Tina speaks French well but she soon realized that wasn't enough. "French is the national language but they have different dialects. I learned Pular. The best way to do it is throw yourself into a community," she says.

After the intensive training, that's exactly what she did.

"My assignment was in a little village called Fatako, which is eleven hours away from Conakry, the capital. I taught close to a hundred students--10th, 11th and 12th graders. I taught high school English grammar and conversation, I got them into writing."

But before she could actually begin teaching, she had to face another challenge. "One of my biggest problems was discipline. That was the barrier to getting things done. In the beginning, no one took me seriously. Discipline in the classroom was shot to hell. There were no other female teachers and I was the only one who wasn't African. The fact that I'm female and I'm short and that some of my students were older than me made a huge difference. I really had to figure out how I was gonna do it."

Tina had to get tough. "I figured I couldn't be nice anymore, I had to crack the whip. I had to raise my voice, I sent them out. It was really the only way to get any work done. They needed it to get into college--that was my responsibility. It worked."

Back to basics
Adjustments needed to be made outside the school too. "In the beginning, it was very lonely, I didn't know anybody. There was no electricity, no running water. To get to the closest big city to go to the bank, the post office, use the phone and go online if the Internet was working, I had to ride at the back of a truck. It was a cattle truck but it's the way people go. The four-hour ride was very uncomfortable."

Because of the difficult ride, she only took the trip once every four to six weeks. The rest of the time, she rode a bike to get to other nearby cities. "During weekends, I would ride 15 km to visit my other American friends who were also teaching," she said.

The bike also came in handy when Tina needed the luxury of a cold drink. "If I wanted a cold soda, I had to bike 20 km from my house to a place where they had generators. But it was worth it."

Despite the major changes, Tina remained strong and determined. She held on to the things that helped her get used to what she calls "basic living." "They found me a house next door to an old woman who lived with her fourteen-year-old granddaughter. She kind of became my mom there. She cooked lunch for me every day. It was nice to have someone there."

Her monthly phone conversations with her mom were essential. And in faraway Africa, getting in touch with her loved ones played an important role. "Writing letters was one of the things that got me through. I must have written two hundred letters."

Soon, Tina grew accustomed to her life in Guinea. "The best times were in the classroom. Getting to know the kids was good. Teaching was the best part because I really enjoyed it. If all else failed, the classroom was my domain. That's where I felt the most comfortable."

Her bed was a mattress on uneven planks and her toilet was not indoors, but she had grown used to life in Fatako. She spent her free time running, reading and writing. Days at Fatako ended early. "There's no point in staying up if you don't have light bulbs. I didn't want to waste candles so I'd be in bed by 8:30 or 9 if I was really tired."

In the friendly village, her ten-minute walk home from school stretched into two hours. "It's always nice to greet the market women who sit by the side of the road. I had to greet and chat with everybody."

Everyone knew Ms Tina, or Katija, as they called her outside the school. The women braided her hair. Little kids invaded her porch and she spent afternoons playing with them. "They were obsessed with crayons and coloring books."

She made good of her life in Guinea but it couldn't be denied that she also missed life in Los Angeles. "I missed my family. I also missed being anonymous. When you're in a village where everyone knows who you are, you just miss the privacy. I grew up in a big city and I missed that anonymity."

Christmas holiday
The people in her village do not celebrate birthdays or Christmas. Tina realized that the holiday season of her second year at Fatako was the perfect time to go home. "I went back to the US. I just really needed to see my family. Christmas is such a huge deal in our family. It's just what I needed. I was getting worn out. I needed a break," she says.

She spent three weeks at home. Leaving for the second time was harder but she knew what she had to do. "In the grand scheme of things, I had made Guinea my home for the past year so I said, Tina, you're going back to your house, your students, your school. And I had made friends. It had become an important part of my life. I had a job, a responsibility. I had to go back and finish what I started."

She returned with renewed zeal. There were more sacrifices to be made but she was ready for them.

Tina, who has been a vegetarian for eight years, had to eat meat for the people of Fatako. "They threw a party for me towards the end and they killed a chicken for me. If I didn't eat it, it would have been frowned upon. So out of respect, I had to eat it. I had just a few bites and then I said I was full."

Then there was the incident with the animals. "I had to leave my house for seven weeks to train some new teachers. When I got back, my house was full of animals. There were furry things, mice, frogs, spiders, insects." It took her three days to clear everything out.

As if patiently teaching the kids in school wasn't enough, Tina felt that she had to leave a tangible mark behind. "Less than two months before I left, I decided I wanted to leave something with them. Something not just for my students but for other people to see. I know a lot of people in the town haven't left that town. And if you don't leave your home it's hard to see where you are in relation to other places, geographically and in every other sense."

She decided to create a world map on a wall in the village. This project is usually done by a group but Tina figured she could do it. She worked on it for a month and a half, grid by grid. She finished the 5 x 2 1/2-meter map five days before she left. The hard work paid off.

(View image of Tina's map.)

"It was fun to point out where I was from. It was fun for my kids to point out where they wanted to visit. Maps, especially in a village like that, generate interesting conversation," she says.

Second home
In June 2004, her contract with the Peace Corps ended. Saying goodbye to Fatako was harder than she thought it would be. "I cried. I didn't really expect that. I got attached without knowing it. I made it home."

She realized that the place has had a huge impact on her. "It was definitely life-changing. It tested everything I grew up with, my principles, my values and what I believed in. It was such a tough thing. I consider myself a feminist and to see the treatment of young girls was hard. They break their backs when it came to work. Marriages are still arranged. A lot of the times, the husbands don't let them finish school. To see that kind of lifestyle makes me appreciate how I grew up, the opportunities given to me. It definitely makes you appreciate what you have. You see a side of life most people don't see--that was a valuable thing."

Her advice for other young people who wish to follow her example? "It's definitely worth it. It can get hard sometimes, it's challenging but you learn a lot about yourself. It helps you look at things differently, at a more global perspective."

After leaving Guinea, Tina started a four-month trip to different parts of Africa, the Philippines and Australia. She has great plans for the future. "I plan to enter law school within the year. I need to get a job so I could pay my way through school."

But first things first. "I'm really looking forward to catching up with my friends. It was hard for me not to know what was going on."

E-mail the author at [email protected].

LAWMAKERS TARGET SAFETY IN THE PEACE CORPS

Dayton Daily News, March 25, 2004:

Volunteers need protection, House panel told

By Mei-Ling Hopgood

WASHINGTON | The father of a Peace Corps volunteer who has been
missing for three years warned a House panel on Wednesday that more
volunteers will be in danger unless the agency improves its handling
of volunteer safety, communication and productivity.

Walter R. Poirier, father of volunteer Walter J. Poirier, who has
been missing from Bolivia since 2001, was among witnesses who told
the House International Relations Committee that in the post-9/11 era
and as President Bush pushes to double the number of volunteers
worldwide, the government has to be vigilant about protecting its
volunteers.

"We believe that the lack of supervision, lack of a meaningful
assignment and lack of a proper place to live all contributed to the
loss of our son," Poirier said.

"The Peace Corps must realize that the world is not the same place it
was 42 years ago and change is necessary to protect its lifeblood,
the volunteers, without whom, there is no Peace Corps," he said.

The House committee is expected to vote next week on reforms that
would establish an ombudsman to handle safety, medical and other
concerns of current and former Peace Corps volunteers, as well as
create an independent watchdog that would oversee the agency's
operations. International Relations Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill. has
proposed a bill called the Peace Corps Safety and Security Act of
2004 that would also require the Peace Corps to maintain its office
of safety and security.

The hearing and legislation follow a Dayton Daily News examination on
the safety and security of volunteers. The newspaper reported in
October that the number of reported assaults from 1991-2002 had more
than doubled, yet the agency continued to put many volunteers in
danger by sending them to live alone in risky areas without adequate
housing, supervision or a job that kept them busy. The series also
found that the agency omitted many crime victims from its published
statistics and ignored or downplayed some volunteers' concerns.

"We come here as supporters of the Peace Corps, admirers of their
sacrifice and of the important work they do," Hyde said at the
hearing. "It is for that reason that today we wish to inquire into
the adequacy of safety and security practices that will govern their
assignment in dangerous places around the world."

Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said, "Although life in Peace Corps is not
easy, it should be safe."

Other witnesses at the House hearing included Dayton Daily News
Editor Jeff Bruce; Jess Ford, an official with the General Accounting
Office, the investigative arm of Congress; Kevin Quigley, president
of the National Peace Corps Association; and Peace Corps Director
Gaddi Vasquez.

Vasquez assured the committee that safety is the agency's top
priority and said he had established an office of safety and security
in 2002, increased the number of security staff members by 80 people
and put more emphasis on safety and cross-cultural training. He said
in October of 2003 he issued a new protocol clarifying the role of
the Peace Corps inspector general in the handling of attacks, from
reporting to prosecution.

"While the Peace Corps will never be able to issue an absolute
guarantee, we remain committed to developing optimum conditions for a
safe and fulfilling experience for every Peace Corps volunteer,"
Vasquez said. "Safety and security issues are fully integrated in all
aspects of volunteer recruitment, training and service, with an
emphasis on volunteers taking personal responsibility at all times
and assimilating into communities."

Bruce, who was asked by the committee to testify about the Daily News
examination, said many of the 350 volunteers interviewed by the paper
- even crime victims - felt good about their service. However, he
said the newspaper found that the extent of the safety problem has
been "disguised for decades, partly because the assaults occurred
thousands of miles away, partly because the Peace Corps has made
little effort to publicize them and partly because the agency
deliberately kept people from finding out - while emphasizing the
positive aspects of service."

A 2002 GAO investigation also found vast under-reporting of crime and
problems with insufficient data collection, housing and support for
volunteers. Ford, who oversaw that investigation, confirmed the Peace
Corps has begun making improvements to its data collection, training
and staff handling of safety concerns, but the efforts are incomplete
and the results unknown.

Peace Corps Inspector General Charles Smith said he supports Hyde's
plan to make his office more independent of the Peace Corps.
Currently, the Peace Corps director chooses an inspector general, who
is charged with being a watchdog for the agency and investigating
safety incidents. Hyde has proposed requiring that the president
instead choose the Peace Corps' inspector general, who will then be
approved by the Senate. That official also would be required to send
his or her reports to Congress.

Smith said he welcomed more independence and freedom from Peace Corps
hiring limitations. Currently his staff is subjected to the Peace
Corps-wide rule that limits most staff members to five years. Some
Peace Corps officials and volunteers have complained that the
limitation leads to a lack of institutional memory of safety problems
and solutions.

Hyde's bill would waive that rule permanently for the inspector
general and staff members who have direct responsibility for the
safety of volunteers. Congress has passed measures the past two years
to temporarily do so.

Quigley, president of the National Peace Corps Association, testified
that some former volunteers were concerned that too much focus on
safety and security could take resources and money away from the
agency's mission and President Bush's intention to double the number
of volunteers. The former Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand said he
felt safe during his service because he was integrated into his
community. However, he said he thought the idea of an ombudsman could
be helpful.

Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., a former Peace Corps volunteer, dropped by
at the end of the hearing to emphasize the importance of preserving
the Peace Corps.

"I really want to encourage the committee, urge the committee not to
change the nature of the Peace Corps so that essentially you have a
fortress of American Peace Corps volunteers," he said. "That would
destroy it."

Dayton Daily News Editor Jeff Bruce said many of the 350 volunteers
interviewed by the paper - even crime victims - felt good about their
service. However, he said the newspaper found that the extent of the
safety problem has been "disguised for decades, partly because the
assaults occurred thousands of miles away, partly because the Peace
Corps has made little effort to publicize them and partly because the
agency deliberately kept people from finding out - while emphasizing
the positive aspects of service."

A Week of Silence and Intimidation for the Single Private Daily Newspaper in the Country

Reporters without Borders (Paris) - from All Africa.com

November 22, 2004

Published on the Web on November 23, 2004

The private newspaper Le Quotidien has not appeared for a week now.

On November 13, 2004, the National Council of Communication (CNC), the regulatory body of the Guinean press, decided to suspend it for “an unlimited period”, following an article entitled “The Country Is Going Badly … When Will the Uprising Come?” Since then its publisher, Siaka Kouyaté, has received telephone threats.

Reporters Without Borders has declared the suspension of Le Quotidien to be “clearly abusive. Such a radical step is at the top of the pyramid of sanctions, whereas no warning was given ahead of time. The turn which this affair has taken seems to demonstrate a will to terrorize Mr. Kouyaté and his team in order to reduce them definitively to silence. The article in question does not justify such ferocity.”

“After reading the article, we note that the writings of Siaka Kouyaté do not contravene in any way the laws in force in Guinea, nor do they harm ‘peace, tranquility and democracy,’ as the CNC would have it believed. The newspaper must appear again as quickly as possible, in order to safeguard the multiplicity of information in the country,” added the organization.

November 7, the front page of the Le Quotidien brought its readers an analysis of the socio-economic and political situation in the country, giving a report on its bad health, a “national confession.” According to the article, “everyone knows that in such a situation, there is only one outcome, uprising. And everyone, in all logic, seems to wait for the President, the first in everything, to give the signal for it.” The article defined this rising as a “revolt against our bad practices, our bad habits and our bad choices” and spoke unambiguously of a necessary “a national leap forward.” “Its populations wait until, from the chief that they have given themselves, comes the signal for violence, this positive violence engaged in by all great nations when the historical moment demands it.”

Thus it was, the weekend of November 7 and 8, that Kouyaté learned of the closing of his newspaper by means of an official statement of the CNC broadcast on national radio and television. The CNC stated that it judged this editorial to be “very harmful and tendentious,” considering it a violation of the rules of professional ethics, and refusing to allow the Guinean media “to be transformed into subtle and unavowed dens of racism or hatred.”

Since his visit to the headquarters of the CNC where his attempts at explanation encountered a firm refusal, Kouyaté stated to RSF that he has received “phone calls coming either from the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance, or from anonymous persons, whose threatening tone illustrates a manifest desire to intimidate.”

http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200411230027.html

GLOBAL Alumina announces plans for equity financing to raise up to
November 13, 2004
Canada.com - Canada
... will be used to finance the next stage of development and construction
of Global Alumina's 2.8 million tonne per annum alumina refinery in Conakry, Guinea. ...

http://www.canada.com/businesscentre/story.html?id=e2744189-6c8f-45c2-a242-4e5556efbb21