Threat of Another Military Intervention in Guinea as Top Junta Official is Arrested
30th January 2010 · 1 Comment · By Ahmed M Kamara
Colonel Moussa Keita - Defiant
Dadis Camara’s closest confidante in Guinea’s military junta, Colonel Moussa Keita, has been arrested and taken into custody. There is clear indication from reports coming out of Guinea, that officers loyal to exiled Junta leader Dadis Camara, are determined to sabotage the peace agreement signed in Burkina Faso as long as their leader is kept in isolation. It has also become apparent that Dadis Camara reluctantly signed the agreement and continues to harbour intentions of returning as leader. There is no way Colonel Moussa Keita, who is extremely close to Dadis Camara, would continue to show defiance, if Dadis Camara had told him in private to show solidarity to the agreement. This rift only goes to show the continued divisions among the Junta hierarchy over the sidelining of Dadis Camara from the political landscape of Guinea.
There is clear and imminent threat to the peace and security of the West African Country. Keita and fellow junta officials steadfastly loyal to Dadis Camara, on the eve of the Burkina Faso agreement, chattered a plane to Ouagadougou to try and convince Camara to return to Guinea. At a press conference in Ouagadougou earlier this month in which Dadis Camara announced that he would not be returning to Guinea and gave his blessings to the transition of power, Keita openly wept and seemed clearly disappointed with the deal.
There are also reports that Camara has been trying to consolidate support from other Junta members by making telephone calls to his supporters in the country from Ouagadougou and trying to convince them to be steadfast in their demands for his return. The acceptance of Guinea’s Interim Leader Sekouba Konate, to sign up to the Ouagadougou agreement had raised suspicion of a sell-out in Dadis Camara’s mind as reports late last year from Morocco, indicated that Western Diplomats made a lucrative offer to Konate to sign up to a plan hatched by the U.S. to remove Dadis Camara from Guinea’s political life. Konate knew that Dadis will not be coming back to Guinea when he left with intentions to return to the country, but failed to inform his Junta superior about the plan. Camara was not informed that the flight he boarded from Morocco was not destined for Conakry. He was shocked to learn that the plane arrived in Ouagadougou instead. Konate then arrived suspiciously in Burkina Faso a day after Dadis flew into the country. Tensions did flew up between the two during the deliberations on the agreement and Konate even offered to resign if Camara failed to sign up to the deal.
Guinea’s political future is still in doubt despite the formation of an interim administration and the apparent peace agreement. There is clear and present danger that the division in the Junta threatens a serious escalation of already existing tensions, which might ultimately lead to another possible military intervention by forces loyal to Dadis Camara. Colonel Keita is not the only Officer and high ranking Junta official loyal to Dadis Camara. Whether his arrest will become a defining moment in the military politics of Guinea, the next 48 hours will clearly shed some light.
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© 2010, Ahmed M Kamara. All rights reserved.
Tags: burkina-faso, Colonel Moussa Keita, dadis camara, Guinea, Ouagadougou, Sekouba Konate
[...] willingness to step down. Then strange things started happening. One of Dadis closest deputies, according to reports, flew to Burkina Faso to convince his former leader to return to Conakry, upending the deal hashed [...]