Lansana Conté

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Lansana Conté at a meeting with Vladimir Putin, July 2001

Lansana Conté [ lɑ̃saˈna kɔ̃ˈte ] (* 1934 in Moussayah Loumbaya , Guinea , † December 22, 2008 in Conakry ) was President of Guinea from 1984 until his death. Under his rule, presidential elections with several candidates took place for the first time since Guinea's independence in 1958, although the freedom of this and subsequent elections is doubtful.

Early years

Conté belonged to the Susu people and was born in Moussayah Loumbaya near Dubréka near Conakry, the capital of the country that was then part of France . After finishing school in Guinea, he attended military schools in Bingerville in Ivory Coast and Saint-Louis in Senegal .

soldier

In 1955 he joined the French army. In 1957 he was during the Algerian war in Algeria stationed. After Guinea gained independence on October 2, 1958, he was accepted into the army as a sous-officier . In 1962 he attended the Military Academy Camp Alpha in Conakry and was on July 1, 1963 Sous-lieutenant promoted two years later to lieutenant . On November 22, 1970, he was involved in the defense of a coup attempt in which the Exilguineer to Portugal belonging to Guinea-Bissau from since independence authoritarian ruling President Ahmed Sékou Touré wanted to overthrow. For this he was promoted to Capitaine on February 27, 1971 . In 1973 he became commander of the Boké region on the border with Guinea-Bissau with the task of supporting the Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) , which fought against Portugal until 1974 . Since May 10, 1975 he was a member of the General Staff. In 1977, he headed the Guinea negotiating delegation to settle a border dispute with the now independent Guinea-Bissau. Since 1980 he was a member of parliament in which only Touré's unity party Parti Démocratique de Guinée (PDG) was represented. In the same year he headed the official delegation of his country on the pilgrimage to Mecca .

president

Military government

A week after President Touré's death, Lansana Conté overthrew interim president Louis Lansana Béavogui in a coup on April 3, 1984 . The constitution was suspended and a military council, Comité militaire du rétablissement national (CMRN) with 25 members was established. On April 5th he took over the office of president. Conté released Guinea from its close ties to the Soviet Union and distanced himself from the human rights violations of the Touré era. Some political prisoners have been released and the 200,000 or so exiled Guineans have been encouraged to return. In the economic field, in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, he opted for a more market-based course.

On December 18, 1984 he separated from his Prime Minister Colonel Diarra Traoré and abolished the office until July 1996. During a trip by Conté to a meeting of the West African Economic Community (ECOWAS) in Lomé , Traoré attempted an unsuccessful coup on July 5, 1985. Traoré was executed a few days later, along with some of his followers. Most of the putschists belonged to the Malinke people . Since April 3, 1990, Conté was General and, as President, also Commander-in-Chief of the Army. In the 1990s he brought about the release of the Liberian warlord and later presidential candidate Sekou Conneh , the son-in-law of his fortune-teller, who was held by the Liberian secret service under Charles Taylor .

Multi-party system

In the course of the general democratization in the African states since the early 1990s, a multi-party system was also introduced in Guinea , but without risking the possibility of a change of government. A new constitution was approved in a referendum on December 23, 1990, and the CMRN military council was abolished on January 16, 1991. In 1992 political parties were allowed.

On December 19, 1993, for the first time since independence, presidential elections with several candidates took place, which Conté won as a candidate for the Parti de l'Unité et du Progrès (PUP) with 51.7% in the first ballot. The elections were overshadowed by numerous allegations of manipulation. In the parliamentary elections on June 11, 1995, his PUP received 71 of 114 seats. On February 2, 1996, a mutiny led to another coup attempt, which his government survived. He won the next presidential election on December 14, 1998 with 56.1% of the vote. There were again allegations from the opposition and international observers, but less than five years earlier. A constitutional referendum on November 11, 2001 extended the President's term of office from five to seven years and lifted the limitation on the term of office. The constitutional amendment was approved by 98.36%, with the opposition again making charges of electoral fraud . In the parliamentary elections boycotted by the strongest opposition party on June 30, 2002, his PUP won 85 of the 114 seats. The presidential elections in the following year were boycotted by almost all opposition parties and he was re-elected for another seven years on December 21, 2003 against another candidate with 95.25%. The PUP was able to win the local elections in December 2005 with a low turnout. Conté suffered from diabetes and his health had deteriorated over the past few years, so that early on it was doubted whether he would survive this term in office.

During a failed attack, shots were fired at his escort on January 19, 2005 as he was en route to the capital, Conakry. Conté, who was unharmed, then turned to the population via radio and television and declared that he survived because God had not yet foreseen his death. He condemned those who he believed tried to stop Guinea's development.

From January 10, 2007, a general strike called for an unlimited period by the unions and supported by 14 opposition parties took place, with which Conté was to be forced to resign. Conté's opponents accused the 72-year-old politician, who was in bad health, of corruption and abuse of power. In the course of violent unrest in Conakry and other cities, at least 59 people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes with the increasingly violent police force in the first 16 days of the general strike. On January 22nd alone, 49 people were shot dead by security forces in the suburbs of Conakry. On January 28, the unions had temporarily ended their general strike after they had reached an agreement with the government to appoint a jointly appointed prime minister, to whom Conté transferred part of his power. After Conté appointed one of his confidants, the protests escalated. About sixty people came on the weekend of 10/11. February died. On February 12, Conté declared a state of emergency. In mid-February the president finally agreed to appoint a prime minister who himself appoints the ministers of his government and with whom the unions also agree.

The new cabinet led by Lansana Kouyaté did not include any minister from the previous Conté government. The opposition was cautiously optimistic about the government's appointment.

On December 22, 2008, Conté died of leukemia . Just hours after the announcement of death, the military under Moussa Dadis Camara took power in Guinea.

literature

  • Wolf-Rüdiger Baumann, Gustav Fochler-Hauke: Biographies on Contemporary History since 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24553-2 .

Web links

Commons : Lansana Conté  - collection of images, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Guinea's President Conté has passed away  - news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.bridica.com/EBchecked/topic/134711/Lansana-Conte
personal data
SURNAME Conté, Lansana
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Guinean politician, President of Guinea
DATE OF BIRTH 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Moussayah Loumbaya
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 2008
Place of death Conakry