Guinea junta leader faces 'dead city' on first visit outside capital
AFP
LABE - Guinea's military ruler headed Saturday in an armed convoy for the country's second city, the opposition stronghold of Labe, on his first trip outside the capital since seizing power in December last year.
Local residents, who took to the streets of Labe in their thousands on Thursday to protest the visit, said Moussa Dadis Camara would be boycotted when he arrived, with shops and businesses shut for the day.
"We promised that we planned no action to disrupt the visit but we will not have anything to do with it, we are decreeing Labe a dead city on Saturday," he told AFP.
The main market and most shops failed to open as Camara made the 400-kilometre (240 mile) journey by road, and not by helicopter as originally planned.
Witnesses said he had left Conakry at the head of a convoy of dozens of vehicles, including jeeps equipped with machine-guns.
Police said around 20,000 people had taken to the streets of Labe on Thursday in the biggest opposition demonstration to date against the West African country's military ruler.
Organisers said more than twice that number marched through the centre of Labe, shouting "Down with the military dictatorship, No to Khaki Power!".
The demonstration was prevented from reaching the main administrative headquarters by a strong police presence, but no violence was reported and the marchers dispersed peacefully, witnesses told AFP by telephone.
A new political party in Guinea, the Rally for Defence of the Republic (RDR), announced last week that Camara would be its candidate in a presidential election in January.
Camara himself has yet to formally announce his candidacy, but Diallo predicted on Thursday that he would use his visit to Labe to do so.
The African Union has threatened sanctions on Camara over his apparent intention to run in the poll, with the first round set to be held on January 31.
Labe is the stronghold of former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, a key opposition figure who will be a candidate in the January election.
Junta chief Camara installed himself at the helm after leading a bloodless coup within hours of the death of Guinea's strongman leader Lansana Conte, who had been in power since 1984.
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