Outcry against sentencing of opposition leader

Human rights groups and foreign governments have protested the sentencing on Monday of Guinean opposition leader Alpha Conde, saying his penalty was a setback for democracy. Supporters of Conde, meanwhile, said his jailing on sedition charges was expected and accused President Lansana Conte of trying to eliminate his political adversaries so as to complete, without hindrance, the five-year term he won in 1998 elections. "It's no surprise" that Conde was jailed for five years, Sekou Tatia Coumbassa, a senior member of Conde's Rassemblement du Peuple de Guinee told IRIN on Wednesday. "It has nothing to do with the current situation in Guinea." Coumbassa was referring to recent cross-border attacks by armed men from Sierra Leone and Liberia that prompted the Guinean government to round-up 5,000 West Africans at the weekend for screening. They have been released but authorities remain cautious. Prime Minister Lamine Sidime on Tuesday blamed "opponents in the Alpha Conde camp", along with Liberia and Burkina Faso, of being behind the attacks. Conde, a former parliamentarian, was arrested in December 1998 near the border with Cote d'Ivoire, a day after the presidential election in which he finished third amid allegations of vote rigging. The parliamentary assembly of the Francophonie on Wednesday renewed its call for Conde's immediate release and for political dialogue in Guinea. The Beninese League for the Defense of Human Rights called Conde's sentencing "a parody of justice". For its part, the United States said Conde's sentencing was a blow to confidence in Guinea's judicial system as well as its commitment to democracy. "Such actions against an opposition leader corrode democracy and are destabilizing for Guinea," a State Department spokesman said." We also find the government of Guinea's claims that Conde was helping to organize recent incursions from Sierra Leone into Guinea to be without foundation. We've seen no evidence to support such claims."