Armed men fire at president's car, bodyguards return fire

Armed men fired several shots at the car of President Lansana Conte of Guinea as he was driving from his residence to the centre of the capital Conakry on Wednesday morning, eyewitnesses said. Conte's bodyguards returned fire and gave chase to the assailants while crowds of civilians in the street panicked and fled, the witnesses told IRIN. Several people were arrested on the spot, they added. The eyewitnesses said it was not clear whether anyone had been killed or wounded in the incident. One UN source told IRIN in the Senegalese capital Dakar that Conte himself was believed to be safe, but that another person travelling inside his car had been killed. There was no mention of the attack by state-controlled radio and television, and government officials contacted by IRIN refused to comment. Reuters and the Canada-based internet news service Guineenews (www.boubah.com) both reported that men in military uniform who appeared to be dissident soldiers had carried out the attack on Conte. Guineenews said one of the president's bodyguards had been seriously wounded in the incident, which took place in a suburb known as Enco 5. Residents in Conakry, contacted by telephone from Dakar, said the police and army had established road blocks on access roads leading to the city centre and presidential palace, which are situated on a peninsula. One European diplomat told IRIN that cars entering and leaving the area were being systematically searched and extra guards had been placed at the radio and television centre. Conte, who will be 71 one this year, is a former army colonel who came to power in a 1984 coup. He has ruled the country with an iron hand since then, but he has been in poor health for the past three years. Diplomats say that chronic diabetes and a suspected heart ailment mean that he is no longer able to walk unassisted. Discontent in the former French colony of eight million people has meanwhile been growing as a result of a steady decline in the economy and rampant government corruption. Food prices rose sharply last year, provoking rice riots in Conakry in July and there have been a number of strikes and demonstrations by poorly paid workers who are no longer able to make ends meet. The latest of these was an eight-day teachers' strike which was called off on Monday night after the government agreed to meet some of the teachers' union's demands for higher pay. Conte, who has not designated any obvious successor, has survived several coup attempts during his 21 years in power, including one in 1996 when dissident troops bombarded the presidential palace with canons and burnt it down. Diplomats in West Africa have long feared that following bitter civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau, Guinea could become the next country in the sub-region to be plunged into conflict. Wednesday's apparent attempt to assassinate Conte occurred as most other West African heads of state were meeting in the Ghanaian capital Accra for the annual summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It took place on the first anniversary of his inauguration for a new seven-year term on 19 January 2004. Conte was re-elected virtually unopposed in December 2003 in a poll boycotted by all the mainstream opposition parties, which accused the government of vote rigging.