Big homecoming staged for President Conte’s return

Government ministers and leading business men turned out in force Friday to welcome President Lansana Conte back home to Guinea’s capital Conakry, after spending nearly a week in Switzerland where he received medical treatment. Since Conte collapsed on an overseas trip in 2002, questions about the state of the president’s health have abounded, and more than once he has been reported close to death’s door. On Friday, a motorcade of over 100 gleaming cars packed with Guinea’s most influential government and business leaders, swept through pot-holed streets lined with security forces to the airport to meet the president, a diabetic who turns 72 this year. Conte waved from his car at children who had skipped school in their hundreds to catch a glimpse of the president and some 300 female praise singers dressed in the white and green of Conte’s ruling party sang of his greatness. According to state radio, Conte was heading directly for the presidential palace where he was expected to brief his ministers on his state of health. The government has repeatedly denied that Conte was evacuated due to a health emergency in the early hours of Saturday morning, saying instead that the president was on a private visit to Switzerland where he would also seek medical attention. Lansana Conte, a former soldier, came to power in a military coup in 1984 and many analysts fear that in the event of his death, the country could come apart due to a power vacuum.