Cowed Guinea opposition running out of options

By Daniel Magnowski and Saliou Samb

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Opponents of Guinea's ruling military junta, intimidated by the killing of more than 150 protesters at a rally on September 28, are finding themselves toothless in the face of a violent and repressive regime.

Popular opposition to de facto head of state Captain Moussa Dadis Camara and his junta, the National Council for Democracy and Development, has never been stronger, but is unlikely to manifest itself as mass action amid fear any new demonstrations will be put down just as brutally.

"Since the massacre, people are scared," said Benjamin Toure, an artist who moved to Guinea from Sierra Leone in 1999 to escape the violence there. "Anything can happen. Lots of soldiers are drunk, and most of them think that to be a soldier is to make people scared of them," he said.

Opposition parties in the world's biggest bauxite exporter have consistently called on the CNDD, which staged a coup after President Lansana Conte died last December, to hold elections and give guarantees that Camara would not stand in them.

Those killed on September 28 were marching to demand that Dadis -- as most Guineans call the junta leader -- make just that commitment. But the welter of political parties, trade unions and civil society groups ranged against the CNDD have learned that fighting a military junta that appears willing to kill unarmed protesters is an unequal battle.

"We don't have weapons, but we have the people behind us," Mohamed Diane, executive secretary of the Assembly of Guinean People (RPG), the country's biggest opposition party, told Reuters. "All we can do is to mobilise and to continue to exert pressure internally and externally."

International measures taken against Guinea include arms embargos and the freezing of assets of some junta members by the European Union and the African Union. France has halted cooperation with Guinean institutions and suspended funding of a highway project.

Dadis has denied responsibility for the killings, pointing the finger at rogue elements in the army.