Camp Boiro Memorial

Human Rights Violations
in the Popular and Revolutionary Republic of Guinea

"Disappeared" Prisoners

These 78 cases are the best documented exemples of much wider violations. Of as many as 4,000 individuals arrested for political reasons between 1969 and 1976, some 100 were sentenced to death, according to official sources. These prisoners were no doubt executed, although their bodies were never returned to their familles and it is not known where they are buried. Perhaps as many as 1,000 others were released, although the release of only about 100 has been reliably established. The fate of the remaining thousands is unknown, but none of these prisoners has reportedly been seen alive in any of Guinea's prisons for political detainees since fate 1980.

The authorities have employed a policy of almost absolute secrecy regarding the whereabouts and stase of health of political detainees. Individuals arrested in Guinea for political reasons are held incommunicado, and familles are kept in ignorance of their stase of health and their whereabouts. Most familles would in any case be reluctant to make inquires to the authorities regarding their detained relative, for fear that they too might be arrested. In many cases, relatives of detained "counter-revolutionaries'' have been subjected to arbitrary dismissal from employment, and the requistion of their houses and possessions. Children of such detainees are frequently reported to be discriminated against by oeing denied access to further education, and the wives of prisoners are apparently encouraged to remarry.

The "disappearances" have taken place within an atmosphere of what the government has called a "permanent plot" to overthrow it.

Notes
1. A "disappearance" occurs when a person is taken into custody by the authorities who subsequently deny responsibility for the arrest or abduction and claim to know nothing of the victim s fate or whereabouts. "Ex trajudicial executions" are unlawful killings perpetrated for political reasons by order of a government or with its complicity. The United Nations has expressed its concern in recent years at reports of "disappearance" and killings of political opponents by governments as hurnan rights violations of the most serious kind.