More attacks on rice trucks despite gov't moves to restore calm

Despite efforts by Guinean President Lansana Conte to diffuse tensions over rising rice prices, gangs of angry youths attacked food trucks in the capital Conakry on Thursday night, forcing police to shoot into the air to disperse the crowd, witnesses said on Friday. People living in the Gbessia neighbourhood near Conakry airport said youths stormed trucks carrying rice and flour on Thursday evening. The security forces opened fire, sending residents fleeing. Hundreds of protesters then pelted policemen with stones and bottles and chanted anti-government slogans, eyewitnesses said. As news of the disturbances spread, youths in other parts of the city began holding up private vehicles, threatening to smash their windscreens unless the driver and passengers paid them money. Informal reports circulating on the streets of the capital said two youths had been killed by police during the disturbances. Police denied the reports. The latest violence came two days after Conte, spurred into action by a rash of attacks on rice trucks last week, tried to quell mounting anger at the spiralling cost of Guinea's staple food. Rice currently sells on the free market for up to $30 per 50 kg bag -- more than many Guineans earn in a month. Conte on Tuesday ordered private buyers to sell special stocks of government-supplied rice at a controlled price of 40,000 Guinean francs or US $14 a bag. He also suspended more than 100 elected officials in the capital, accusing them of stealing such rice, which had previously been sold by the government under their supervision from special depots. Guinea once exported large quantities of rice, but today its eight million people - especially the two million inhabitants of Conakry - are heavily dependent on imports. And with the Guinean franc depreciating rapidly, the price of rice in local currency terms has been climbing rapidly One opposition leader told IRIN privately that Conte, who has ruled Guinea with an iron hand for 20 years, was simply making the local officials into scapegoats for the much bigger problem of rampant corruption at the top levels of government. Others have blamed the rising price of Guinea's basic foodstuff on a chronic shortage of foreign exchange caused by the country's steady economic decline, falling returns from exports and the unwillingness of western donors to give money to the government.