(Recasts with deaths, government comment, details from mining
hub)
By Saliou Samb
CONAKRY, Oct 14 (Reuters) - At least one policeman and a
protester were killed on Monday during demonstrations in Guinea
against a possible change to the constitution that could let
President Alpha Conde seek a third term, officials and residents
said.
Police opened fire on demonstrators as they ransacked
military posts and blocked roads with burning tyres in the
capital Conakry and protests in the northern opposition
stronghold of Mamou also turned violent, witnesses said.
Conde's second and final five-year term expires in 2020 but
the 81-year-old leader has refused to rule out running again. He
asked his government last month to look into drafting a new
constitution, sparking calls from opposition leaders for a
series of demonstrations, starting this week.
A doctor at a hospital in Conakry said one protester was
shot dead in the capital. Residents in Mamou said a paramilitary
policeman was beaten to death by protesters.
Government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara said a
protester in Conakry and a gendarme in Mamou had been shot dead.
"The goal of the demonstration, which was meant to be
insurrectional, was clearly to provoke a violent response from
the military to cause a lot of deaths in order to inflame the
situation," he said.
Opposition leader Cellou Diallo, who came second behind
Conde in 2010 and 2015 presidential elections, told reporters
that four protesters had been shot dead in Conakry. He said at
least 38 people had been wounded in Conakry and Mamou.
"We encourage citizens to continue to demonstrate - today,
tomorrow, the day after tomorrow - until our legitimate demands
are satisfied," he said. "We need a clear, firm and irrevocable
declaration from Alpha Conde renouncing a third term."
On Monday, security forces blocked the opposition leaders
who had called for the demonstrations from leaving their homes.
Several civil society leaders were detained over the weekend.
Several African leaders have tried to circumvent
constitutional term limits in recent years, with mixed success.
In 2014, Burkina Faso's Blaise Campaore was chased from
office by a popular uprising after he proposed changing term
limits. The following year, Rwanda's Paul Kagame and Congo
Republic's Denis Sassou Nguesso easily pushed through new
constitutions that allowed them to stay in power.
In Guinea, political protests, labour strikes and
demonstrations against companies mining the country's vast
bauxite reserves often turn violent.
There were also mostly peaceful protests on Monday in Boke,
the bauxite mining hub, and the northern towns of Labe, Telimele
and Koundara, residents said. Guinea has the world's biggest
reserves of bauxite, the ore used to make aluminium.
Some employees of the Guinea Bauxite Company (CBG) mine in
Boke were unable to get to work because of barricades in the
streets, slowing operations there, a CBG official told Reuters.
Conde's first election win in 2010 raised hopes for
democratic progress in Guinea after two years of military rule
and nearly a quarter a century under authoritarian President
Lansana Conte, who died in 2008.
Conde's opponents, however, say he has cracked down on
dissent since coming to power after years as an opposition
figurehead campaigning to defeat Conte.
(Writing by Alessandra Prentice and Aaron Ross; Editing by
David Clarke)
Rio Tinto (RIO)
