Coup Fever

A military takeover in Guinea

Radio Conakry was still broadcasting funeral dirges and flowery eulogies last week for President Ahmed Sekou Toure, who had been buried only a few days earlier, when an anonymous spokesman broke in with a bulletin. Guinea's armed forces had seized power in a bloodless coup, the announcer declared. The goal, he went on, was to replace Toure's 26 years of "bloody and ruthless" rule with "true democracy." Word of the coup brought many rejoicing Guineans out into the streets.

The new leaders promptly dissolved the country's only political party, suspended the constitution and declared a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. But they also threw open the doors of Guinea's jails and released some 250 political prisoners. Said an official communique: "No one will again be frightened to express his or her opinion in Guinea."

At first Guineans were told only that their country would be run by a 25-member Military Redemption Committee. Two days after the coup, the armed forces announced that Colonel Lansana Conte had been named President and Colonel Diarra Traore would be Prime Minister of a Cabinet composed of eight civilians and 25 officers. Conte, the apparent leader of the coup, had been commander of the Boke region in northwestern Guinea. Louis Lansana Beavogui, the former Prime Minister, who served as acting President for all of seven days after Toure's death, was reported to have taken refuge in the Chinese embassy.

Toure was one of the first black African leaders to ally his country openly with the Soviet Union. But when his brand of "revolutionary socialism" failed to alleviate Guinea's poverty, he turned to the West for assistance. The country's new rulers have indicated that they would, if anything, accelerate that trend. Military broadcasts said that the government would "restore the rundown economy through the encouragement of private enterprise and foreign investment."

Coup fever spread last week to another West African country, Cameroon, as gun battles broke out in the capital city of Yaounde. The suspected instigators: Muslim members of the palace guard loyal to former President Ahmadou Ahidjo, a northern Muslim whom President Paul Biya, a southern Christian, replaced in 1982. Ahidjo, who had led Cameroon for 22 years before going into exile in France, was convicted in absentia last year of plotting to overthrow Biya. Last week's rebellion was apparently sparked by Biya's efforts to replace Muslim officers with Christians loyal to him. Though no details were available, the government radio announced at week's end that the mutiny had failed.