Interim leader visits wounded junta chief Camara

Guinea's interim leader, General Sekouba Konate, flew Monday to Rabat to see the head of the junta, Moussa Dadis Camara, who has been hospitalised there since a Dec. 3 assassination attempt.

Konate, who served as Camara's defence minister, is visiting for "courtesy and consultations", said an official text read on state radio overnight Sunday. An unnamed diplomatic source told AFP that Konate had arrived Monday night.
  
Konate had not seen Camara since the junta leader was shot in the head on Dec. 3 by a former aide at a military camp in Conakry. 
  
Since Camara was operated on for a "cranial trauma", Guinean authorities have said repeatedly that he is "doing well" and that he plans to return to Conakry "as soon as possible".
  
Camara came to power in a military coup on Dec. 23, 2008, hours after the death of long-time dictator Lansana Conte, who had ruled since 1984.   
  
The coup led to regional and international sanctions being imposed on the junta.
  
Camara's rule drew renewed international condemnation and new sanctions after a Sept. 28 crackdown on an opposition rally in which security forces killed more than 150 people and for refusing to remove himself as a candidate for elections set for January 2010.