In exile since 2009, the former head of the military junta, Moussa Dadis Camara, is back in Guinea to answer in court for his alleged responsibility in the massacre of September 28, 2009 in the stadium of Conakry, the Guinean capital. An unprecedented trial in a country marked by authoritarian regimes and years of impunity.
A historic trial
It took time, determination and international pressure to bring those responsible for the massacre to account. Eleven high-ranking government and military figures will be tried. At their head, the man who ruled the country in 2009, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara. Unheard of in Guinea where impunity is set up as a “institution”according to the international commission which investigated this mass killing.
The opening of this trial will allow the victims to take an important step towards much-needed justice after the horrific crimes committed in the stadium.
Elise Keppler, deputy director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights WatchHRW
What had happened?
Tens of thousands of Guineans gathered peacefully on September 28, 2009 at the Conakry stadium to dissuade the head of the ruling Guinean military junta from standing in the presidential election. The demonstration banned by Captain Dadis Camara was brutally suppressed by his men. They entered the compound, cordoned off the entrances and opened fire indiscriminately on the crowd. Point-blank shots, machete blows, gang rapes… Unheard-of violence that left at least 156 dead and thousands injured. The abuses constitute crimes against humanity according to a report of the International Commission of Inquiry.
International pressure
The International Criminal Court (ICC) followed this case from the beginning. But this jurisdiction only intervenes when national courts are unable or unwilling to investigate serious crimes and prosecute their perpetrators. Under pressure, Guinea had officially committed to do so. A very long investigation was carried out but the trial was postponed several times.
Last July, the head of the current junta, Mamady Doumbouya, announced that the trial would open before the commemoration of the massacre in 2022. Victims’ associations fear a new postponement after thirteen years of waiting. “We hope to have clear, transparent justice, not (a) travesty of justice”, told AFP Asmaou Diallo, president of the Association of Victims, Parents and Friends of September 28
