Guinea - Diakité exclusive

Camara betrayed me, says Diakité

Article published on the 2009-12-16 Latest update 2009-12-16 09:06 TU

Diakité (right) flanks Guinea junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara in October
(Photo: Reuters)

The man who attempted to assassinate Guinea's military ruler, Moussa Dadis Camara, has told RFI that he did it because he felt he was being betrayed. In an exclusive interview, Lieutenant Aboubacar "Toumba" Sidiki Diakité also claimed the 28 September massacre was “planned”.

Diakité was Camara’s aide de camp when he shot him in the head on 3 December. Camara was flown to hospital in Morocco where he remains in hospital while Diakité went on the run.

“I opened fire on him [Camara] because after a while there was complete betrayal – betrayal against me and a complete betrayal against democracy,” Diakaté told RFI’s Olivier Roget in a telephone interview from his hideout.

Diakaté shot Camara while a United Nations team was in the country investigating the football stadium massacre on September 28 in which over 150 anti-government demonstrators are believed to have been murdered.

“He tried to place all the charges of what happened on the 28^th on me,” said Diakaté. “It was an act of treachery that forced me to act.”

Diakaté also denied Camara’s earlier statement that the massacre had been the result of a spontaneous loss of control by the leadership’s security forces.

“What happened on 28 September was planned,” Diakaté told RFI. “Everything was planned and I was the one who had to take the blame for everything "

Human Rights Watch has already claimed that the massacre was premeditated and committed by members of the Presidential Guard, who are commonly known as the “red berets”.

Diakaté said he would remain on the run because he now feared for his life.

“I don’t plan to hand myself in because they [the leadership] don’t want the truth to come out. They would prefer to kill me.”

Guinea's military rulers have accused France of being involved in the assassination attempt on Camara.