Guinea junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara is unable to communicate after being shot by an aide and operated on in Morocco for a head wound, his foreign minister said in an interview on Monday.
“I have seen President Dadis. He recognises his entourage,” Alexandre Cece Loua told Radio France Internationale from Rabat.
Asked whether he can engage in conversations, the minister said: “No, not for the time being. On the advice of doctors, he cannot yet communicate.”
Cece Loua had previously said the junta leader underwent surgery for a head wound and his condition was “very favourable.”
“His life is not in danger,” he said.
He has indicated Camara may address the nation in the coming days.
The African Union said in a statement late Thursday that sanctions will be implemented within a week. The decision was made in Abuja, Nigeria at a meeting of the AU’s second-highest decision making body, the Peace and Security Council.
The council had warned last month that it would impose sanctions if Guinea’s military junta did not clearly state they would not run in elections scheduled for Jan. 31, 2010.
Capt. Moussa “Dadis” Camara seized power hours after longtime dictator Lansana Conte died last December. Camara initially said he would not run in elections, but later hinted he may run.
A U.S.-based human rights group says the Sept. 28 massacre by Guinean troops of at least 150 people and the rapes of dozens of women at a pro-democracy rally in Guinea were premeditated — and that rapes of kidnapped women continued for days.
The leader of Guinea’s military junta has blamed the attack on “uncontrolled” elements of the army. But In a report released Tuesday, Human Rights Watch cited witnesses who saw senior officers at the stadium where the massacre and rapes took place.
The group says the presidential guard entered the stadium and immediately opened fire on defenseless pro-democracy protesters. Soldiers then began raping women in and outside the stadium, suggesting it was organized.
Guinea junta forces killed at least 128 people when they opened fire on an opposition demonstration, an opposition party said Tuesday.
There were 70 dead in Ignace Deen hospital and 58 dead in Donka hospital after security forces fired on anti-junta protestors in a stadium Monday, said the Union of Republican Forces party in a statement.
The party loyal to former prime minister Sydia Toure added that junta forces were collecting bodies in a bid to hide “the scale of the massacre”.
“Soldiers have been seen collecting bodies in the streets to take them to Alpha Yaya Diallo camp, the junta headquarters,” said the party.
This was “probably to avoid a precise count of the number of those killed, which would reveal the scale of the massacre,” the statement added.
