Young people hunger strike in Guinea

Young people in Guinea went on hunger strike today, to push the country’s leaders for an end to the political crisis. The five-day campaign, by several youth groups in the country comes a month after a deadly military government attack on the country’s people. At least 157 unarmed political demonstrators were killed and hundreds more hurt in the army crackdown last month. Guinea's military government says it will cooperate with a UN investigation into what happened when protesters were demonstrating at a sports centre against the expected presidential candidacy of military ruler Captain Moussa Camara. The army said only 57 people were killed because of a crush leaving the stadium. But human rights groups said the military killed and raped hundreds.

Guinea’s young people say they want the military junta and the opposition to come up with a compromise about the way forward for the nation. They said they were worried their country’s political situation was getting worse. Thierno Balde, one of the leaders of the hunger strike and president of the Federation of Youth Associations of Guinea, said there would be another hunger strike if the country's leaders fail to come up with a solution to the crisis. "There are several youth from the Youth Federation of the Association of Guinea who are organizing a hunger strike. The objective of the hunger strike is to let all political leaders in Guinea (know) that we are concerned about the situation and we will like to have peace and stability in Guinea," he said. “This is to draw our leaders’ attention to the need to engage in dialogue, preserve national unity, prevent further violence and arrest the authors of the massacre,” he told the United Nations news service, IRIN. “The situation in Guinea today is extremely difficult, and no one knows how things will evolve,” he said. “This is why we want now to urge everyone to avoid more violence.”

Another of the young hunger strikers told reporters “It is the youths who are the real victims of the crisis in Guinea. Instead of going to the streets, we thought this would be a peaceful and effective way to protest. We will just be in a room at the youth centre, protesting quietly. One of the major problems has been a lack of dialogue between the CNDD National Council for Democracy and Development, which the junta calls itself, on the one hand and civil society and political leaders on the other. They must go to dialogue. We say, no more killings in Guinea.”

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children