The religious are busy bringing the CNRD and Forces vives de Guinée around the table. But their task promises to be difficult, as the two parties are frozen. The FVG remain determined, at least for now, to take to the streets on March 20. The UFDG calls on its militants to be ready.
They had based their hopes on the good offices of the country’s clerics, in particular the imam of the Great Mosque of Conakry. The leaders of the UFDG expected that the clerics would make the CNRD bend on, among other things, the opening of a framework for dialogue under the aegis of ECOWAS, the release of political prisoners, the lifting of the suspension of demonstrations. But El Hadj Mamadou Saliou Camara and company had difficulty in freeing even Abdoul Sacko, coordinator of the Social Forces Forum, picked up by gendarmes on the eve of the decisive meeting of March 13. It is still vague around his situation. At the UFDG, pessimism sets in: “The Forces Vives have defined clear prerequisites so that we can discuss our country. We are not finding the right path… Out of respect for the religious, and because Cellou Dalein is a man of peace, we have accepted the outstretched hand, so far we have not been successful”, explains Bano Sow, one of the vice-presidents of the party.
At the rate things are going, the demonstration of March 20 becomes inevitable. Especially since the authorities of the transition and the religious brandish the “verbal” release of Abdoul Sacko as a gesture of appeasement. They want the FVG to postpone their demonstration again. Bano Sow sees this as a delaying tactic: “We cannot trust a junta that does not respect its commitments. We have no choice but to express ourselves through the only recourse we have left, which is manifestation”. He calls on the religious to prove themselves: “There is no alternative, the transition would have to lead to a return to constitutional order. The religious still ask us to postpone the march because, according to them, they have commitments, that they will succeed. We don’t trust anyone, we want results, concrete actions”. Bano Sow calls on the militants of the UFDG to respond massively to the slogan of the Forces Vives: “We are patient, but this patience has limits. There will be a statement from the FVG, we ask you to stay mobilized because we will not be fooled”.
Yacine Diallo