The Prime Minister appointed by the military who took power in Guinea has expressed his disagreement with the junta’s decision to rename Conakry airport after former president Ahmed Sekou Toure, father of independence for some, dictator for others, Mosaiqueguinée.com reported Friday.
“I am surprised, displeased and overwhelmed. I learn like you and like everyone else. I was neither consulted nor associated in the decision making process,” Mohamed Béavogui told a journalist from the news site Mosaiqueguinée.
Two collaborators of the civilian Prime Minister confirmed his disapproval on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject.
Guinean media reports noted that this was the first time Beavogui had publicly dissented from the junta since he was appointed on October 6 by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who with his men overthrew President Alpha Conde on September 5. But they added that Mr. Béavogui had other reasons for his frustration than the new name of the airport.
National television, the junta’s almost exclusive communication channel, announced that the airport would be renamed after the man who led the country from independence in 1958 until his death in 1984.
Ahmed Sekou Toure divides Guineans who see him as a Third World hero who stood up to the former French colonial power, or remember that his presidency was marked by an authoritarian exercise of power, purges and torture at the Boiro camp of sinister memory.
During his presidency, some 50,000 people were tortured, shot, hanged or “disappeared” in detention, according to victims’ associations and human rights organizations. Hundreds of thousands of Guineans were forced into exile.