Oct 122009
 

Via IRIN:

At an 8 October gathering of Guinean women beaten or raped during the recent military attack on demonstrators, all wept as one young woman presented torn clothes soldiers had ripped off of her.

“We all collapsed in tears. It is unspeakably painful what happened here in Guinea,” Aïssata Daffe of the Union des Forces Républicaines political party told IRIN.

The gathering was part of an ongoing effort by local NGOs and civil society organizations to collect information about the sexual violence during the 28 September military crackdown in order to appeal for assistance and justice.

NGOs are still trying to determine how many women and girls were raped. For now 33 cases have been documented, according to local and international aid agencies.

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Via AllAfrica:

More condemnations at the weekend, greeted the recent killing and alleged rape of women by the military in Conakry stadium, Guinea, with a call for an international commission of inquiry to probe the immediate and remote causes of the protest, following allegations that the head of the military junta, Captain Moussa Dais Camara, was planning to contest the presidential election in the country, scheduled for January, 2010.

The protest, which followed repeated assurances by Camara that he would organise the presidential elections, without participating in it, however, led to the condemnation of the actions of the military by the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Lagos, and Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, in the wake of the protest by Guinean nationals.

In a statement jointly signed by the Executive Director of WARDC, Abiola Afolabi-Akiyode and JDPC Director, Rev. Fr Patrick Ngoyi, “demanded that the capital city and the entire country be demilitarized for peace to reign.”

“We believe that the military junta cannot investigate the murders carried out by his men without being partial. It is unfortunate that this repressive act took place at a time when the international community, human rights institutions and government institutions in Africa are trying to eliminate all forms of discriminations against women and encourage their political participation using instruments such as the Campaign against all Forms of Discriminations Against Women (CEDAW), International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) among others,” the statement stressed.

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