GUINEA

CASE N° GUI/01 - MAMADOU BHOYE BA
CASE N° GUI/02 - MAMADOU BARRY
CASE N° GUI/03 - THIERNO OUSMANE DIALLO
CASE N° GUI/05 - EL-HADJ AMIATA MADY KABA *
CASE N° GUI/06 - KOUMAFING KEITA *
CASE N° GUI/07 - MAMADY YÖ KOUYATE
CASE N° GUI/08 - IBRAHIMA KALIL KEITA

Resolution adopted without a vote by the Inter-Parliamentary Council
at its 166th session (Amman, 6 May 2000)

The Inter-Parliamentary Council,

Referring to the outline of the case of the above-mentioned parliamentarians, opposition MPs of the National Assembly of Guinea, as contained in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/166/16(c)­R.1), and to the relevant resolution adopted at its 165th session (October 1999),

Referring also to the report on the Committee's on-site mission conducted from 10 to 14 January 2000, and to the observations provided on behalf of the Government by the Minister of Justice and the observations thereon supplied by the lawyers of the deputies concerned,

Noting that, according to the Guinean delegation to the 103rd Conference (April/May 2000), El-Hadj Amiata Kaba has died, and that thus both the youngest member of the group of deputies arrested and detained by way of reprisal for the December 1998 demonstrations in Kankan-Siguiri and the oldest are now dead,

Considering also that, since the mission, there have been no new developments to indicate that the authorities have taken account of the concerns voiced by the Committee's delegation,

Bearing in mind that the Republic of Guinea is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which guarantee the right to freedom of assembly, the right to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention and from torture and ill-treatment, and the right to fair trial,

1. Thanks the Guinean authorities, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice for the cooperation they extended to the Committee's delegation, which permitted it to conduct its mission in full;
2. Expresses special thanks to the National Assembly and its President for the welcome they extended to the mission and their efforts to ensure that it could carry out its assignment; also thanks the delegation of Guinea to the 103rd Conference, headed by the President of the National Assembly, for the information and observations communicated to the Committee;
3. Commends the members of the mission on their work and report, and fully endorses their conclusions;
4. Considers that the observations supplied by the Government do not suffice to dispel the concerns expressed in the report, and wishes in particular to point out the following:

      (i) As regards the Kaporo-rail case:

        
   • The murder of a gendarme has not been taken into account in the judgment handed down in this case;      
   • The characterisation of a crime or offence as flagrante delicto relates to the circumstances in which an alleged offender is arrested; hence, only if the three MPs concerned had been arrested on the spot at the time of the commission of the offences, pursued by public outcry or found in possession of incriminating objects or showing evident signs of participation in the events at Kaporo-rail, which was not the case, could they have been arrested without the lifting of their parliamentary immunity;

      (ii) As regards the Kankan-Siguiri case:

        
   • Neither the observations of the Government nor the judgment contain any clear evidence that the deputies concerned were involved in demonstra ting and arrested at the scene of the demonstrations; two of them at least, namely El-Hadj Amiata Kaba and Ms. Koumafing Keita, who was ill at the time, were arrested long after the event, both at their homes and Ms. Keita at 1 a.m.;      
   • The lawyers contest the assertion that police did not fire on the crowd and they provided a list of the persons who were shot dead or received gunshot wounds in Kankan and Siguiri, together with a list of the persons admitted to the Kankan and Siguiri hospitals;
5. Expresses deep concern at the fact that the authorities have so far not seen fit to institute any investigation into the concurring declarations of the MPs concerned that they were ill-treated, and points out that, since Guinea is a party to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the authorities are under an obligation to institute investigations into such allegations;
6. Would appreciate comments from the Government on the delegation's concluding remark about the right to fair trial;
7. Can but express deep concern, as the world organisation of national Parliaments, at the evident lack of respect shown by the Government of Guinea for the National Assembly and its members, as emerging from the mission report, and calls on the Government to respect the prerogatives and powers of the other State branches since there can otherwise be no rule of law;
8. Encourages IPU member Parliaments to give support to the National Assembly of Guinea by whatever means they may deem appropriate;
9. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the President of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice, inviting them to convey to the Committee the video cassette which, according to the lawyers, exists of the entire Kaporo-rail trials;
10. Requests the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session (October 2000).

Note: you can download a complete electronic version of the brochure "Results of the 103rd Conference and related meetings of the Inter-Parliamentary Union" in PDF format (file size approximately 410K). This version requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download free of charge.