Word: junta
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...late September, the Guinean military junta murdered 150 demonstrators and raped scores of women who peacefully sought civilian rule. Two weeks later, a secretive Chinese conglomerate with several ties to state-owned enterprises and governmental agencies struck a $7 billion deal for oil and mineral rights with the Guinean dictatorship, even as the United States and European Union slapped it with sanctions...
...Guinea's broad-based opposition movement - called Forces Vives, literally meaning Forces Alive, and made up of political parties, labor unions and civil society groups - drew tens of thousands of supporters to a rally in the stadium to protest what it called an increasing authoritarianism in the country. The junta struck back with brutal force. According to witnesses and human rights groups, the army first locked the protesters in behind metal doors hastily electrified with lethal current, then opened fire. The wounded were finished off with bayonets. Scores of women were raped in broad daylight. (See pictures of Guinea-Bissau...
...What worries the opposition most now is that the junta, which took power in December 2008 and is led by a former army captain, Moussa Dadis Camara, seems to be preparing for more repression. Intermittent beatings and killings of opposition supporters continue, says a Guinean human rights worker who requested anonymity. And there are widespread reports of new militia training camps that have been set up in the hinterlands to train new paramilitary forces. Thierno Sow, president of the Guinean Organization for Human Rights (OGDH), claims the camps are outside a town called Forecariah near the border with Sierra Leone...
...time progressed, there was little sign of preparations for those elections. Then came the bloodshed at the stadium. And in October, the junta announced a massive deal with a group called the China Investment Fund (CIF), which promised to fund $7 to $9 billion worth of infrastructure projects in Guinea in exchange for bauxite and iron mining concessions. (Guinea has some of the world's largest bauxite deposits.) Idrissa Cherif, Camara's spokesman, says the first batch of Chinese money has now arrived and will be spent on "electricity, water, roads and the like." (See life on the Streets...
...opposition is doubtful of the regime's intentions. Oury Bah, head of the opposition party Union of Democratic Forces (UFDG), says the junta is in dire need of cash to pay its supporters. "They need money to stay in power," he says. "They're ready to sign anything." For its part, the opposition is refusing to take part in talks with the junta aimed at creating a national unity government, saying that doing so would only legitimize Camara's rule. As Bah says: "There's no reason to be optimistic...