2023-12-13 15:41:30
Witnesses continue to take the stand at the trial of the September 28, 2009 massacre at the Dixinn criminal court relocated to the Conakry Court of Appeal. Wednesday, December 13, Lieutenant-Colonel Sory Condé, gendarme on duty in the special services fighting against banditry and drugs at the time of the events, testified in court.
Second lieutenant at the time, Sory Condé recalls that the anti-drug service was created when the CNDD took power in 2009. Its mission was to fight against insecurity. “Given the service provided, the service was applauded by the population. This is why Colonel Moussa Tiegboro Camara has always been mandated by higher authority, each time there is a demonstration, to channel the demonstrators. Because the service was greatly acclaimed by the population…”
The day of the massacre
According to Sory Condé, on September 28, 2009, the coordinator of the service, Captain Ouo Ouo Yamou, planned two teams: one group was to go via the Leprince road and the other, via the Fidel Castro highway, to not only secure the populations, but in case there are demonstrations, to root out the thugs who often grab people’s property. “At Bellevue, the demonstrators began to come out. Given the plethora of numbers, we could not channel them. Immediately, we were pushed back by the demonstrators to the level of the esplanade of the September 28 stadium. That’s where I found Colonel Tiegboro Camara. We found a CMIS device, with their mamba. There were a lot of people there. Colonel Tiegboro got on the mamba, thinking that he was going to be listened to, just as when he speaks, he is applauded, he is loved. At one point, the stones started to rain…” Lieutenant-Colonel Condé affirms that it was when he and his group were leaving their position that he saw Colonel Moussa Tiegboro speaking with political leaders. At the same time, the demonstrators came to receive their leaders, to enter the stadium. There too, these demonstrators threw stones. “When we left, the protesters went inside the stadium. We were sitting in Donka when we heard gunshots. Through the walkie-talkie, we heard that it was red berets who came to the stadium. This is how we returned to the stadium, we found a stampede, because of the warning shots, people were panicked, so much so that they did not know where to go. When I came, I found that Colonel Moussa Tiegboro was inside the stadium.”
From the hustle
Sory Condé declares that on his return to the stadium, he was at the front, on the annex stadium side, when the demonstrators were climbing the wall to leave; others were leaving through the door, there was a stampede. “Personally,” he said, “I came to draw out certain elements. I managed to save a lot there. In the meantime, the people who were walking on the stadium wall came walking on the roof of the police station which collapsed. I saw Colonel Tiegboro Camara’s guard carrying El Hadj Cellou Dalein Diallo towards the exit, I myself saw him going out with Jean Marie Doré, peace to his soul! During this time, I helped the Red Cross to pick up people who were suffocated, to send them to the hospital,” explains Lieutenant-Colonel Sory Condé.
Contradiction
Being at the door, Sory Condé said he saw Aboubacar Sidiki Diakité known as Toumba, pushing back the demonstrators. According to him, he was not armed. The prosecutor asks him: “Do you confirm that you saw Toumba pushing back the demonstrators inside the stadium? » “Yes,” replied the lieutenant-colonel. “Meaning you were inside the stadium?” » continues the prosecutor. Sory Condé retorts: “No, I was in front of the gate of the annex stadium”. The prosecutor concluded that Sory Condé was inside the stadium. “We can be in front of the gate, to see what is happening inside the stadium,” replies the witness. While he had said in his hearing report before the investigating judge that it was soldiers led by Toumba Diakité who had come to the stadium, they were shooting in all directions. But on the stand, Sory Condé says he found Toumba Diakité at the stadium. And he cannot say that it was Toumba who led the soldiers who came to the stadium. Also, he says, he cannot confirm that it was Toumba who gave the orders. Besides, he did not “see him give orders”. In this same report, he said that it was Colonel Ibrahima Kalonzo Camara who was the team leader of the special services on September 28, 2009. On the stand, Sory Condé categorically denies this version. ” I never said that. That day, I didn’t know where Kalonzo was,” he says. The lieutenant colonel seems to question the PV. “I don’t know what they wrote there, but it didn’t come from me,” he said.
The president of the court asked to be shown the report, to see his signature. Sory Condé recognizes his signature, but categorically rejects the content.
As we went live, the witness was answering questions from the lawyers.
Ibn Adama
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