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17 February 2010
Guinea's interim prime minister announced his confidence in the transitional government that will oversee the country's road to new elections. Within the government are a few names that have been implicated in past human rights abuses.
Interim Prime Minister Jean Marie Dore is hailing the 34-member transitional government as welcoming a new era in Guinea.
Prime Minister Dore said he is confident that the mixture of opposition politicians, union leaders and military members will work together to drive the country toward democracy and prosperity.
But two of the men who will continue their roles in the government have been implicated as perpetrators of human rights abusers says Corinne Dufka, Human Rights Watch's Senior West Africa Researcher.
"We're very concerned about some of the appointments included in the new government which was announced yesterday. Most notably we're concerned about the presence in that government of two individuals who have been implicated in very serious human rights abuses in 2007," Dufka explained.
Those two men are Lieutenant Colonel Moussa Camara Tiegboro and Captain Claude Pivi. Tiegboro, who was appointed by the previous ruling military junta to oversee the country's fight against drugs and serious crimes, will retain his post.
Last year, Tiegboro publicly called upon citizens to burn criminals who were caught in the act of stealing. Dufka says he is also one of the key people implicated in a massacre in September of last year, in which more than 150 Guinean protestors were killed by members of Guinea's armed forces.
"This is an individual who was present at the stadium during the incidences in September 2009. He was named by the International Commission of Inquiry as well as our report as being one of the primary individuals implicated in the September violence. Some of his subordinates were directly involved in very serious abuses at the stadium. And he has been recommended for prosecution by the commission of inquiry report as well as us and other individuals with knowledge of those events," Dufka stated.
Claude Pivi will be the Minister of Presidential Security under the transitional government. Dufka says Pivi has been implicated in a number of human rights abuses, including an incident in 2008 when he allegedly tortured a number of Cameroonians in Guinea for breaking the mirror on his car.
This transitional government, overseen by opposition politician Dore, is the result of an agreement between civilian and military rule. It was agreed upon by the former ruling military junta, lead by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, who came to power during a bloodless coup in December 2008. Camara was forced to relinquish his hold on power after an assassination attempt last December. He is currently convalescing in neighboring Burkina Faso.
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