U.S. official met Guinea junta leader Sekouba in Morocco - seeks civilian rule
January 6, 2010

Washington - Top US and French diplomats held talks in Morocco on Tuesday with Guinea's interim junta leader General Sekouba Konate about the need to restore civilian rule in Conakry, a US spokesperson said.

Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, raised "our ideas on... seeking a peaceful resolution to the political situation in Guinea" during talks in Rabat, State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley said.

Crowley told reporters that Carson, accompanied by his French counterpart, echoed US calls to establish "a civilian-led transition government leading to free, fair and transparent democratic elections."

The talks underscored US moves to reach out to Konate, who officials in Washington suspect may be more supportive for Guinea's return to civilian rule and democracy than the junta leader, Moussa Dadis Camara.

Assassination attempt

Crowley said Carson did not meet Camara, who is being treated in a Rabat hospital for month-old wounds sustained when his aide de camp shot him in the head during an assassination attempt.

A junta source said Camara did not seem aware of his surroundings when Konate visited him last week but Guinea's official media reported earlier that the leader is recovering and will return to Conakry as soon as possible.

Crowley hinted at US opposition to Camara's return.

"Yes," the spokesperson replied when asked if US officials believed Guinea was more likely to transition back to democracy if Camara remains outside the country.

Analyst John Campbell, a former US diplomat with broad experience in Africa, said last month that Camara could return to Guinea and launch reprisals that could split the army into warring factions.

Under such a scenario, Camara could fall back on ethnic militias with ties to groups in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia, countries that were engulfed in civil war in the 1990s.

Fears of new civil war

In an interview with AFP last month, Carson's deputy William Fitzgerald echoed fears of a new, regional civil war.

"We're very concerned about these ethnic militias and the potential, if Dadis were to return, of a civil war that would spill over the borders and reinfect Sierra Leone and Liberia," Fitzgerald said.

The United States, along with international and African regional groupings, has been urging the junta to step down and make way for a transitional body since the army massacred dozens of opposition protesters on September 28.

Fitzgerald said Konate appears to be "an ideal transition leader" as he demonstrates no political ambitions.

Camara seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2008.