In his second appearance before a Guinean court over crimes of rape and massacre that occurred on September 28, 2009, ex junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara has been giving his version of events as they unfolded while he was in charge of the country.
By Siddy Koundara Diallo
Dadis was scheduled to appear on Monday, December 5, 2022 but his hearing was postponed for a week for health reasons.
Back in court on Monday, December 12, the former president of the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) was on the offensive.
He strongly accused Alpha Conde and Sekouba Konate, both former presidents of Guinea, of having planned the massacres at the stadium using his aide de camp Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, known as Toumba.
According to him, the September 28 carnage was part of a machination to oust him from power.
He is convinced that Conde, president between 2010 and 2021 knew that he (Dadis) was poised to organize free and transparent elections and would hand over to whoever emerged the victor.
According to the former junta head (2008-2009), the first plot was to weaken him by deposing him in the early hours of his own coup.
“But it didn’t work,” he said, categorically refusing to make amends with the Guinean people who had demanded remorse from the former military leader.
“What forgiveness will I ask of the people of Guinea? It is Toumba and Sekouba who must come here to seek forgiveness from the people of Guinea. September 28 was cleverly orchestrated, prepared from scratch by President Alpha Conde, Sekouba and their executor Toumba Diakite,” Dadis Camara emphasised.
When he came to power in 2008, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara began an audit of the management of General Lansana Conté’s regime (1984-2008).
Several former leaders were subjected to televised questioning to explain their management of public property.
And it is through this exercise, according to the former president of the CNDD that he became aware of the strategy of the historical ex-opponent, Alpha Conde.
Dadis, adept at conspiracy theories?
Wearing a traditional outfit, the former military leader maintained that the only concern for Alpha Conde was to smear Cellou Dalein Diallo and prevent the elections that were to sanction the end of the transition from being organized transparently.
“That’s where I started to have all the false problems” he said, although for Toumba Diakite’s camp Dadis is adept at waxing conspiracy theories.
“The events of September 28, 2009 are the logical consequence of Dadis’s desire to remove the uniform to present himself as a candidate. This is what caused it… He said nothing. He is engaging in political rhetoric rather than defending himself in relation to the facts of which he is accused,” said Toumba’s lawyer, Lansiné Sylla.
The president of the court, Ibrahima Sory II Tounkara, adjourned the case to the next hearing on December 13.
SKD/ac/fss/as/APA