Guinea’s next steps: mining review, army reform

[miningmx.com] — GUINEA will review mining contracts and cut the size of the armed forces during 2012, President Alpha Conde said in a speech outlining his priorities for his second year in office.

The moves are aimed at boosting the West African state’s economy and cementing its fragile stability, but if done poorly could backfire by angering international investors as well as the country’s unruly soldiers.

Guinea is the world’s largest supplier of the aluminum ore bauxite and has vast deposits of iron ore that have drawn billions of dollars in planned investment, but it is struggling to emerge from decades of political turmoil.

“The new projects that lie ahead focus on three priorities: strengthen national unity, improve the daily lives of Guineans, and transform the economy,” Conde said in an address aired on national television late on Tuesday.

He said the projects would include revising all of the country’s existing mining contracts to ensure they conform with a recently overhauled mining law, and putting some 4,000 members of the armed forces into retirement.

“The changes taking place are aimed at cleaning up the business environment in a way that renews the confidence of our international partners, who are coming to Guinea in greater and greater numbers,” Conde said.

Guinea Mines Minister Mohamed Lamine Fofana first signaled plans for a mining contract review during an interview with Reuters in September, shortly after a mining law doubling the state share in projects was adopted.

Guinea’s bauxite and iron ore riches have attracted some of the world’s biggest mining companies, including Australian heavyweight Rio Tinto and Brazil’s Vale.

Conde added he planned to shrink the size of the military, as part of a broader security reform effort.

“The retirement of more than 4,000 members (of the armed forces) is in the works, with a support plan for each retiree,” he said. “My hope is to revive the tradition of the Guinean army, which was once the pride of Africa.”

Conde took power after 2010 elections billed as the country’s first free vote since independence from France in 1960, but has already been the target of an assassination attempt and his critics say his rule so far has proven little different from the authoritarian leaders of the past.

Conde’s election ended two years of military junta leadership marred by a crackdown in which security forces killed more than 150 protesters and raped scores of women. Military reform is an important but tricky issue for Guinea, which has a long history of soldiers meddling in politics.

US-based Human Rights Watch said Conde had made some progress confronting the governance and human rights problems he inherited from the junta, but had more work to do.

“Conde should confront impunity by the security services for past and ongoing abuses, the denial of the right to assembly, inadequate support for the chronically neglected judiciary, and delays in organising long-overdue parliamentary elections,” it said in a press release.

Guinea will hold legislative elections in 2012, after political wrangling between his government and the opposition forced a delay from late 2011.

“I hope alongside all Guineans that the legislative elections will be held as quickly as possible in 2012,” Conde said in his address.