webGuinée
Camp Boiro Memorial

Human Rights Violations
in the Popular and Revolutionary Republic of Guinea

Other torture

The number of prisoners who died under other forms of torture or as a direct result of its application is not known, but has been unofficially reported to be as high as 100. Techniques of torture are reported to have included :

• the application of electric shocks to
  • the head
  • limbs
  • and genitals
• severe beatings with
  • fists
  • sticks
  • and whips
• and burning with cigarettes.

There are strong grounds for believing that all of the 78 named on the list of “disappeared” prisoners were killed with one of the means described above. However, large numbers of other prisoners are known to have died as a direct result of the very harsh conditions of imprisonment, particularly at Camp Boiro in Conakry and Camp Kene Bouraima in Kindia. In both these locations, prisoners were held in grossly overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, and were poorly fed. Medical facilities were virtually non-existent and many prisoners are believed to have died from malnutrition and disease. In a six-month period in 1974 for exemple, over 250 deaths were unofficiallyreported in one section of Camp Boiro.
Guinea's penal code stipulates that

long terms of imprisonment are to be imposed against officials of the state who operate arbitrary arrests or have recourse to “the use of violence against individuals.”