Guinea strike begins, bauxite output continues

Guinea strike begins, bauxite output continues

Schools, shops and markets in Guinea were shut on Wednesday as a nationwide general strike got under way, but the volatile West African country’s key bauxite industry did not immediately appear to be seriously affected.

Additional police and army patrols deployed around the streets of the capital Conakry on the first day of the indefinite strike, called by unions to protest against the increasingly erratic rule of ageing President Lansana Conte.

Union leaders have cited Conte’s personal intervention last month to release two former allies arrested in a corruption probe as well as the constant reshuffling of his cabinet, which they say undermines his credibility.

“We have presented our conditions to the government, including the return to prison of the two men freed by the president, the dismissal of certain ministers, and the lowering of fuel prices,” said Ousmane Souare, a main union negotiator.

“We have been in touch with the various districts around the country and according to the information we have so far, the strike action has been widely followed,” Souare told Reuters.

A factory worker in Fria, one of Guinea’s main bauxite and alumina industry towns 160 km (100 miles) north of Conakry, said activity had slowed down as workers struggled to find transport but that facilities there were still functioning.

In the main bauxite export port of Kamsar, 300 km (185 miles) northwest of the capital, production was continuing at normal levels although administrative officials at the port and factories were on strike.

Guinea has about a third of the world’s bauxite, processed into alumina then smelted into aluminium, and is the world’s top exporter of the ore. Fria is home to a main site of the Alumina Company of Guinea, run by Russia’s Rouski Alumini (RUSAL).

FEAR FACTOR

Despite its mineral wealth, most of the population of the former French colony remain mired in poverty. Panic buying in the days before the strike meant banks ran out of money and fuel stations ran dry, residents said.

Conte’s ruling PUP party said there had been no unrest anywhere in the country.

“It’s fear that has kept people at home but in fact they totally disapprove of this strike,” PUP Secretary-General Sekou Konate told Reuters.

Residents in the volatile town of Nzerekore, 950 km (600 miles) south of Conakry and the scene of unrest during previous strikes, said shops and fuel stations were closed and the army was patrolling.

A stumbling economy, rampant corruption and a powerful but fractious military have raised fears of instability in a country once seen as a bulwark against wars in neighbouring Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast.

The deteriorating health of Conte, a reclusive diabetic in his 70s who seized power in a 1984 coup, has raised the prospect of a dangerous power vacuum in the former French colony as rival factions compete to succeed him.

Last month he revised a cabinet reshuffle apparently under pressure from one of the political cliques vying to replace him, presidency sources said. It was the second time in 2006 he had abruptly overturned his own cabinet reshuffle.

Source: Reuters

Share this post