GUINEA: Opposition leader arrested after new PM tries to reopen dialogue

[XXPANTHAXX]

CONAKRY, 7 January (IRIN) - Efforts by Guinea's new prime
minister to relaunch a dialogue with opposition parties have
been blighted by the unexplained arrest of Antoine Soromou, a
leading figure in the Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) party
of veteran opposition leader Alpha Conde. Mamadou Ba, the
chairman of the Republican Front for Democratic Change
(FRAD), a coalition of Guinea's six main opposition parties,
said Soromou was arrested on Thursday.

He was detained just 24 hours after opposition leaders met
with recently appointed Prime Minister Cellou Dalien Diallo
to relaunch a dialogue with the government. Diallo, who was
appointed last month by President Lansana Conte, promised at
Wednesday's meeting with opposition leaders to lift a
government ban on private radio stations and bring more
transparency to government. But his initiative was undermined
by Soromou's subsequent arrest.

"That's the problem with this government. They say one thing
today and do the exact opposite the next," Ba told IRIN on
Friday. The FRAD chairman said opposition leaders had so far
failed to secure Soromou's release and the police had given
no explanation for his arrest.

However, Ba said the opposition was still prepared to hold a
fresh round of talks with the government to test its
sincerity. President Conte, a former army colonel, has ruled
Guinea with an iron hand since he came to power in a 1984
coup.

His government's previous attempt to woo the opposition
collapsed in April when Diallo's predecessor as prime
minister, Francois Fall, resigned after only two months in
office and fled into exile. Fall said he decided to quit
because Conte was blocking all his attempts to bring about
economic and political reform.

Soromou first came to prominence in 1998, when he was
arrested and charged alongside Conde, the leader of the RPG,
of plotting to overthrow the president. The two men were
tried and convicted in 2000, along with 46 other members of
the party, but were subsequently released in 2001.