The AP has more on reactions to Guinea’s announcement of a major mining deal with China, just as the military government is being shunned by the rest of the world for the killing of unarmed protesters:
“There’s a real risk that these investments could entrench and embolden and enrich an already abusive government,” said Arvind Ganesan, director of Human Rights Watch’s Business and Human Rights Program.
Chris Alden, an international policy expert at the London School of Economics, said Camara “apparently pulled the rabbit out of the hat for this regime.”
“We’re talking about a desperate captain who ran a coup, who’s actively being delegitimized,” Alden noted.
[…] The deal gives Guinea’s military junta a major potential source of revenue even as it faces isolation from the international community after soldiers opened fire on Sept. 28 at demonstrators opposed to Camara running in elections planned for January.
A local human rights group said 157 protesters died while the government put the death toll at 57. Witnesses say soldiers also raped women in the streets.
