CONAKRY, Guinea - Soldiers protesting the government's failure to give them promised pay raises beat a shopkeeper to death as they looted his store and fired shots in the air, wounding at least 25 civilians, police and witnesses said Friday.
The soldiers are asking for back pay dating from a 1996 promise by President Lansana Conte to add to their salaries. He made the pledge to put down a mutiny in the army.
"We don't want to frighten the population, but Lansana Conte owes money to us, the soldiers," said Lt. Mamadou Bah Diallo, who is stationed in the capital of Conakry.
A spokesman for the soldiers, Lt. Abdoul Gadiri Diallo, said they were not calling for a coup, but added that fighters had waited too long for the promised salaries.
Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate visited a base in Conakry late Friday to listen to the soldiers' complaints. Government ministers were also set to meet Friday to address the issue.
Government officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The West African nation's longtime president has hung onto power despite mass protests earlier this year demanding he step down. After security forces opened fire on demonstrators and killed scores, Conte appointed an independent prime minister to share in governing.
The military's loyalty is seen as key to Conte maintaining his power. Conte himself took power in a military coup in 1984.
The first shots were heard in the town of Kindia late Wednesday. Residents said the military barracks there erupted in gunfire and stray bullets sent more than a dozen people to the hospital.
A police report said 25 civilians were injured by stray bullets, while a doctor at the local hospital said about 20 people had been treated for gunshot wounds to the arm, back and face.
Residents in Conakry and other towns across the country also reported hearing gunfire Thursday.
"They go out in the streets and shoot in the air and ask for their money from the president," said Haadi Diallo, a resident of a Conakry suburb near a military camp.
In N'Zerekore, eastern Guinea, a shopkeeper was beaten to death by soldiers trying to loot his store, witnesses said.
"They killed him because he was trying to keep them from stealing, and because he threatened to expose them the next morning," said Oumar Leno, a neighbor who saw the incident.
Many of Guinea's 10 million people live without the most basic public services, even though the country is world's largest producer of bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum. The country is seen as potential trigger point for violence in a region recovering from a series of devastating conflicts in neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia, and continued instability in Ivory Coast.
Source : news.yahoo.com
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