VZCZCXRO8286
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHRY #0078/01 0291633
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 291633Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY CONAKRY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3404
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CONAKRY 000078 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV ASEC GV
SUBJECT: CNDD PRESIDENT PUBLICLY INTERROGATES ACCUSED 
OFFICIALS 
 
¶1.  (U) SUMMARY.  The President of the CNDD presided over two 
public "hearings" on national television on January 25.  He 
personally interrogated the participants in what was 
described as an aggressive and frightening manner.  Embassy 
and other members of the international community continue to 
underscore human rights concerns.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (U) The President of the National Council for Democracy 
and Development, Moussa Dadis Camara, presided over two 
public "hearings" on January 25, which were broadcast over 
national television.  The room was packed with many observers 
standing in the back.  Members of the Audit Commission 
recently established by the CNDD, several members of the 
CNDD, and Dadis' two vice presidents, Toto Camara and Sekouba 
Konate, were present. 
 
¶3.  (U) During the first hearing, Dadis personally 
interrogated the Director of Aredor, a private diamond mining 
joint venture (Pakistani/Canadian) regarding past actions of 
the company's management.  The Aredor Director explained how 
several expatriate owners of the company had fled Guinea last 
year, in complicity with some Guinean Government officials, 
thereby avoiding paying some 300 Guinean employees salary 
arrears and benefits owed to them.  The Director stated that 
despite his personal efforts to alert Ministry of Mines 
officials to the situation, the Guinean Government did 
nothing.  When Dadis ordered the Director to be precise, he 
named Ahmed Kante, the former Minister of Mines under then 
Prime Minister Kouyate.  As the hearing ended, Dadis invited 
the Director to sit next to him.  Throughout the hearing, the 
Director was visibly uncomfortable. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The tone of the second hearing was markedly 
different as Dadis aggressively questioned the Secretary 
General of the Ministry of Public Works and his subordinate 
over what appeared to be accusations of misuse of public 
funds.  LES staff who watched the proceedings, described the 
atmosphere as "tense" and much like a trial in a courtroom. 
They described Dadis' tone as threatening and intimidating. 
One LES commented that Dadis was wearing his sunglasses, 
smoking cigarettes in quick succession, and making enormous 
arm gestures, much in the fashion of the late President Conte 
when he was in good health. 
 
¶5.  (U) During the interrogation, the Secretary General's 
subordinate claimed that the Secretary General had harassed 
and intimidated him because he had refused to make payments 
to construction companies that had signed false contracts 
with the Ministry for road repairs.  The Secretary General 
denied the accusations, saying that his subordinate's refusal 
to issue payments was unjustified since the companies had 
successfully fulfilled their contractual obligations.  He 
then accused his subordinate of personally taking the 6 
billion GnF intended for the contractors.  The subordinate 
refuted this accusation, telling Dadis that the Secretary 
General actually owned one of the companies to which payment 
was due.  The Secretary General denied this accusation in 
turn and challenged the CNDD to conduct a full investigation. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) In what was described by an LES as a "frightening" 
tone, Dadis said that the audits were not meant to humiliate 
anyone, but rather, to clear up questions regarding the 
management of the country's resources.  At this point, Dadis 
reportedly shifted gears and started talking at length about 
his experience in the military.  He claimed that Generals 
Diarra Camara and Kande Toure (whom the CNDD recently 
retired) had denied him training and promotion opportunities. 
 Dadis said that the generals had also detained him on 
several occasions, and that before President Conte's death, 
Sekouba Konate (now vice president of the CNDD) had been 
instructed to "eliminate" him, but refused.  Dadis then asked 
General Camara's son and General Toure's cousin, who were in 
the audience, to stand up.  He told them that he had the 
power to fire them from the military, but would not do so. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Dadis' participation in these pseudo "trials" is 
cause for concern.  He was the only member of the CNDD 
interrogating these individuals.  The fact that the sessions 
were broadcast over national television suggest that Dadis is 
posturing while attempting to demonstrate the "state's" 
responsiveness to the people and their immediate concerns. 
Arrests continue with little information available as to 
formal charges and no evidence of a judicial process.  The 
Minister of Justice is himself a military officer.  Embassy 
 
CONAKRY 00000078  002 OF 002 
 
 
and other members of the international community continue to 
underscore human rights concerns.  END COMMENT. 
RASPOLIC