Guinea president offer to talks

CONAKRY: Guinea's President Alpha Conde said he is willing to open talks with the West African state's opposition, following riots that killed at least three people in the capital Conakry last week.

Guinea's opposition has accused Conde's government of ignoring its concerns and ruling unilaterally since taking power after a narrow election late last year, and claim that Conde is trying to rig legislative polls set for later this year.

"To all political parties and their supporters, I renew my offer of talks," Conde said late on Saturday on state-run television.

Conde had initially instructed his government to open talks with the opposition in July, but they failed after his interior minister rejected the opposition's demands, which included overhauling preparations for the upcoming polls.

Opposition supporters threw rocks and burned tyres last week, triggering clashes with security forces wielding tear gas grenades and truncheons. Three people were killed in the clashes and some 322 people were arrested and later released.

Opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, who narrowly lost last year's election, has said Conde plans to fix the upcoming parliamentary election by tampering with voter rolls and installing a close ally as head of the electoral commission.

The commission has proposed the legislative polls be held Dec. 29, though that date has not yet been confirmed by the government and the opposition has rejected it.

Diallo has argued that Conde's government is largely run by ethnic Malinke and that he has ignored Diallo's mostly ethnic Peul supporters. Peul and Malinke are Guinea's two most populous ethnic groups.

Guinea has a long history of ethnically driven turmoil and authoritarian leadership. Human rights groups and democracy advocates hoped that last year's election, the first free vote since its independence from France, would end its dark past.

Guinea is the world's top supplier of the aluminum ore bauxite and its vast iron ore reserves have drawn billions of dollars in planned investment from companies such as Rio Tinto and Vale

Copyright Reuters, 2011