“I'll be home soon,” says President Conte

President Lansana Conte, who was flown to Switzerland at the weekend to receive medical treatment, addressed the nation on state radio on Tuesday to assure Guineans that he would be coming home soon. “Tell the people of Guinea that all is well and that I'll be home soon,” Conte said in an interview with the director of the national radio, Tallatou Tamsir Diallo, from Geneva. Government officials have repeatedly denied that Conte’s trip to Switzerland was a medical emergency, but have acknowledged that he is seeking medical treatment in Geneva. Opposition parties in Guinea on Monday called for a transitional government to take control for 18 months before staging elections in Conte’s absence. “The Guinean opposition demands that as of today, a government of transition be set up for 18 months followed by the organisation of credible and transparent elections,” said a communiqué signed by 15 of Guinea’s 16 opposition parties late Monday. The statement was released at the close of a three-day national dialogue to discuss Guinea’s economic woes, attended by representatives of civil society and student groups as well as the political opposition. Guinea, though rich in natural resources including bauxite, gold and diamonds, is one of the world’s poorest countries. Last month a five-day general strike transformed the seafront capital Conakry to a ghostly hush as workers protested deteriorating living conditions. Inflation is currently at 30 percent, according to International Monetary Fund figures, and the Guinean franc depreciates on a near daily basis making imported goods ever more expensive. Even civil servants are struggling to make ends meet with a 50-kilogram bag of rice now costing more than half of a month’s wage for university-educated government employees. But Guineans on the bustling smog-filled streets of Conakry, though concerned that their president might be too ill to govern, gave little credence to the opposition’s demands. “If the President knows that he is ill, he should hand over to someone else to lead us out of this crisis,” said Moussa Conte, a businessman in his thirties. “But frankly, I do not see a single leader in the opposition that carries the hopes of the Guinean people.” President Lansana Conte, a former soldier who took power in a coup over two decades ago, flew to Switzerland in the early hours of Saturday morning. The government has called it a private visit but that Conte will also seek medical attention while abroad. But observers say that Conte, who is in his 60s and a diabetic, has been evacuated for treatment of one of his recurring health problems. “We hope that the president will return in good health,” said taxi driver Mamadou Oury Bah who works day and night to earn enough to get by. “I’m not sure about the idea of a government of transition because he’s ill, but someone should replace him. But it must be someone good!”