Guinea: the second phase of the trial against the perpetrators of the September 2009 massacre has begun testimonies of women victims of sexual violence

ROME – “I prefer to come in public and testify before my nation.” With these words, refusing the option of a deposition behind closed doors, Fatoumata Barry began the story of the horrors that she and hundreds of other people experienced on September 28, 2009 in the stadium of Conakry, the capital of Guinea, a former French colony. Her testimony was an unprecedented moment in an unprecedented process to seek justice against the perpetrators of that massacre.

What happened. Shortly before noon on 28 September 2009, several hundred members of the Guinean security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of people peacefully gathered in a stadium in Conakry. They were demonstrating against the presidential race of then junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara. Officers raped hundreds of women, both individually and in groups, and sexually assaulted them with objects such as batons and bayonets. The toll was 150 dead and sexual assaults against more than 100 women in and around the stadium. Then the police covered up the evidence of the massacre, removing the bodies from the stadium and morgues and burying them in mass graves, many of which have yet to be identified.

The process. The internal investigation, which began in February 2010 and concluded at the end of 2017, progressed slowly amidst political, financial and logistical obstacles. But in a country where impunity largely prevails when the security forces commit crimes, the closing of the investigation and the start of the trial has sent a strong signal for the hope of justice for the victims and their relatives.

The testimonials. Fatoumata Barry said on March 15 that police first hit her, then the officers pulled out a knife, tore her clothes off, and repeatedly raped and beat her with a piece of wood. “You see the cop here…the thing he’s bringing here, that’s what he inserted into me,” she said, holding up a photo of the brutality taken in court. “We are women, we thought that our rights were respected in this country.” For more than a decade, Oumou Barry kept her torn, bloodstained dress in a plastic bag along with a CT scan of her broken shoulder blade as evidence of her sexual assault by a Guinean soldier that Monday. bloodied fourteen years ago. “This is the dress I was wearing that day, this is proof of what they did to me,” the now 63-year-old woman told Al Jazeera.

The demand for justice. Survivors of the horrors and civil society groups have long been campaigning for clarity on what happened that day at the stadium in Conakry. Among the organizations promoting the justice campaign is the Association of victims, parents and friends of the September 28 massacre, Equal Rights for Allthe Guinean Human Rights Organization, the International Federation for Human Rights, Amnesty International And Human Rights Watch. Although almost fourteen years have passed, Fatoumata Barry said during the trial that that memory of her still haunts her: “when I go to sleep at night, those images are the first thing I see”.

Sexual violence and stigma. In February, the first phase of the trial concluded, since then the victims have begun to testify and the women who have suffered rapes have often done so behind closed doors. There is a deep stigma attached to sexual violence in Guinea’s largely conservative society. On the occasion of her first deposition, the court violated the anonymity of the victim because a judge had asked her to appear while the cameras were still rolling in the courtroom and therefore the woman was filmed. Fatoumata Barry, on the other hand, was one of the few who wanted to testify before open doors. Barry left Guinea after the violence because she – she said – cannot go back to live in her country until justice is done.