Conde supporters call for economic sanctions

Supporters of opposition leader Alpha Conde have called for the imposition of economic sanctions on Guinea pending his unconditional release. The call came at a news conference in Paris on Thursday, AFP reported. The Comite pour la liberation d'Alpha Conde, whose director, Albert Bourgi described Conde as a "hostage", called on the European Union to suspend its economic aid programmes to the country. Conde, leader of the Rassemblement du peuple de Guinee, lost presidential elections on 14 December 1998, which were won by Lansana Conte. He was arrested the day after the polls in a village near Guinea's border with Cote d'Ivoire and has been kept in detention since then. During recent meetings with French President Jacques Chirac and Charles Josselin, the French minister of cooperation and Francophonie, Guinean President Lansana Conte reportedly said that Conde would stand trial for trying to leave the country illegally and to recruit troops to destabilise it.