Opposition says interim junta chief's offer fails to address demands

AFP - Guinea's opposition on Friday welcomed an offer from interim junta chief General Sekouba Konate to end the west African country's political crisis, but laid down terms of its own.
   
One of Guinea's main opposition leaders, Cellou Dalein Diallo, welcomed the "speech of appeasement" Konate made on Wednesday, but pointed out that he had taken no account of "the major demands of the opposition."
   
"This is a speech of appeasement that constitutes an opportunity to relaunch the dialogue between the Forces Vives (a coalition of opposition groups, trade unions and civil society) and the authorities," said Diallo, the leader of the Union of Democratic Forces for Guinea, speaking by telephone from Paris.
   
"Nevertheless, the major demands of the opposition have not been taken into account in this speech," Diallo added, after a meeting in Paris with five other members of Guinea's opposition.
   
"We need first to agree on the length of the transition, the non-candidacy of (junta) and government members (in eventual elections), we have to set up a framework for consultations on the institutions of the transition, draw up a road map and a timetable for the transition," he said.
   
In his speech, Konate invited the opposition to choose the next prime minister ahead of the formation of a transition government, and called on opposition leaders who fled to return, saying he guaranteed their safety.
   
Konate, who is also defence minister, took charge after junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was shot in the head and seriously wounded on December 3 by his aide de camp during an altercation. Camara has since been hospitalised in Morocco.
   
On Friday, a source in the Guinean presidency said that Konate was "ailing" and would be flown to Dakar for medical treatment, but Guinea's health minister strongly denied the report.
   
"Sekouba Konate is not sick, he is well. No evacuation is planned to Senegal. He was to go to Dakar for consultations with (President) Abdoulaye Wade, but it's not a health problem," Colonel Abdoulaye Sherif Diaby said.
   
Konate's proposals were welcomed by the United States and the regional economic bloc ECOWAS on Thursday, and led one exiled opposition leader, Mouctar Diallo, to say he would return.
   
The bauxite-rich west African country has been under military rule since December 23, 2008, and tensions peaked last September 28 when troops massacred at least 156 people at an opposition rally.
   
Four of the leaders at the Paris meeting left Guinea after the massacre in a Conakry stadium, when hundreds of people were wounded and many women and young girls raped in what the United Nations has called a "crime against humanity."
   
"We wanted together to analyse and draw the lessons of the speech by General Sekouba Konate," Diallo said.
   
"Many people are focused on the nomination of a prime minister, but we first need to define the institutional framework," he added. "It's a matter of logic. It would be best to define his mandate and the institutional framework in which he will act."