Guinea leader says will cooperate with inquiry: UN

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Guinea's military government has promised to cooperate with a U.N. inquiry into a bloody crackdown against protesters in the West African country last month, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday.

Haile Menkerios, the top Africa official in the U.N. political affairs department, also told reporters that the United Nations would deploy human rights observers in Guinea, which he visited last weekend.

"We met with the president, (Captain Moussa) Dadis Camara, who said himself he is eager to have this commission come and his government will fully cooperate with it," Menkerios said after briefing the Security Council. "We have it in writing."

Camara took power in a coup last December after the death of veteran strongman President Lansana Conte.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's hopes to name the members of the commission "as soon as possible," he said. Its goal will be to determine responsibility for the events of September 28, when gunmen used live rounds against anti-government protesters in a stadium in Guinea's capital, Conakry.

The violence killed 157 people and wounded more than a thousand, according to a local rights group.

Menkerios said that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay planned to deploy "as many human rights observers as possible" to Guinea to ensure that human rights are respected during a mediation process between the leadership and the opposition and civilian society.

If the presence of U.N. human rights observers is deemed insufficient, Menkerios said the West African regional body ECOWAS would consider other options for intervention.