“Guinea’s September 28th Massacre: Ben Youssouf Keita, a Vital Witness in the Trial – Leaves One Perplexed and Bursting with Curiosity!”
Following Bah Oury and former Prime Minister François Loucény Fall, it was now the turn of Ben Youssouf Keita, a senior official in the UFDG, the country’s main political party, to testify on Tuesday, April 11, at the trial for the massacre at the 28-September stadium.
Reporter stationed at Conakry, Mouctar Bah
For the former right-hand man of Cellou Dalein Diallo, current leader of the Alliance for Change and Progress, testifying in this court is a duty in memory of the victims. “The reason that prompted me to testify is a duty of memory, a moral debt that I owe to my companions who fell on September 28, 2009,” said Ben Youssouf Keita. “For those of us who were spared, we must testify for those who died for the democracy for which we were all fighting.”
That day, in the stadium of the same name, dozens of opposition militants to the military regime then led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, were savagely massacred by soldiers of the regular army.
This former senior official of the UFDG is heard as a witness and victim of the massacre. For him, it is necessary for the court to help find the masterminds. “Let us know who the real sponsors are, not the small fry who carried out the orders and let them take their responsibility so that justice is done and Guinea reconciles with itself,” he said.
His wife beaten to the point of bleeding
Before the court, Ben Youssouf Keita claims that on that day, soldiers, the men of Colonel Moussa Thiégboro Camara, beat his wife until she bled. And that this senior officer refused to come to her aid.
The lawyer for Colonel Camara, Me Abdoulaye Keita, says he is calm. “We will ask for his wife to appear and refute everything her husband said in this report. Besides, it does not harm our client, Colonel Tiégboro is calm, his lawyers are calm, we have no problem. He will come out victorious in this trial,” he said.
Ben Youssouf Keita, a key witness to these violent events and a medical professional, claims to have treated around ten women who were victims of rape after the massacre.
