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E-mail a friendGuinea's New Strongman
Camara's coup last December received some news coverage, but it mostly went unnoticed in the western world. After all, how newsworthy is yet another African strongman seizing power and offering his people everything they need, only to turn his back on them and rule at gunpoint? Unfortunately, Camara's story is the same as so many others in Guinea and its neighbors.
According to The New York Times, Camara shuns formal government buildings and lives in a military camp near the capital, Conakry. He rises late in the day, sometimes after dark, and rules his country by night, his aides whispering in the shadows.
At a recent pro-democracy rally in Conakry, Camara's soldiers opened fired on protesters, killing more than 150 and wounding many more. According to Camara, the demonstration "had the character of wanting to overthrow a chief of state." Apparently, Camara didn't make it to the rally because he couldn't find the keys to his pickup.
In one of the only one-on-one interviews Camara has granted, to an American college junior interning with the U.S. Dept of Defense in Guinea, he says little of substance, but reveals much about his character. While condemning tribalism and nepotism, he calls his detractors "crazy" and "jealous," and offers that the problems he inherited from the previous regime are "not my fault."
The startling thing about listening to Camara is how much his words sound the same as so many other African dictators. It bodes poorly for Guinea, a coastal country rich in natural resources, with little hope for stability the near future.