6-14-06, 10:08 am

CONAKRY, 13 Jun 2006 (IRIN) - Soldiers patrolled the streets of Guinea’s capital Conakry on Tuesday after a second day of violence in the midst of a crippling nationwide strike that has inflamed political tension.

Anti-riot police fought running battles with stone-throwing youths in the morning. Barricades blocked streets and smoke rose from burning tyres. By the afternoon, the streets of Conakry were mostly calm and nearly deserted, except for soldiers and military vehicles.

Security forces fired teargas and plastic bullets at hundreds of student demonstrators on Monday who were demanding that the government resign or negotiate in good faith with workers’ unions leading the strike action to demand lower prices for fuel and rice.

The government acknowledged an unspecified number of deaths during Monday’s violence, but a precise death toll and the extent of injuries could not be immediately confirmed. Local reporters, relying on telephone calls from eyewitnesses, said between seven and 17 people had been killed across the country. Hospital counts were inconclusive, they said, as some districts of Conakry remained too tense for residents to bring bodies to the morgue.

Local newspapers reported that 10 people had died in Conakry, three in the southeastern town of Nzerekore and three in the northern town of Labe.

The government of President Lansana Conte accused opposition political parties of being behind the indefinite strike, which entered is sixth day on Tuesday.

“Certain political parties have done their utmost to finance and equip the demonstrators, who have infiltrated the school population,” government spokesman Moussa Solano said in a statement aired on state-run radio on Monday. “These actions aim to destabilise the government and democratically established republican institutions.”

Trade unions, however, have largely taken over from a fractured and weak political opposition as the national voice of discontent in the face of skyrocketing inflation and deteriorating living standards.

As a result of the strike, which includes some 12,000 teachers, students were unable to begin taking their final exams for their diplomas on Monday. They blamed the government for failing to compromise with the unions, thus threatening to derail their entry into university or into an increasingly disadvantaged workforce.

The government late Monday announced that the exams would be delayed until further notice. There was no immediate reaction from students; however, eyewitnesses said fewer students appeared to be involved in Tuesday’s violence. Unemployed youths appeared to have taken advantage of the strike to air frustrations over their poor standard of living, the witnesses said.

For their part, the leading Confederation of Guinean Workers (CNTG) and the Union Syndicate of Guinean Workers (USTG) met with President Conte on Monday and vowed to continue the strike until their demands are met.

Hardliners replaced reformists in a government reshuffle in May, making an impasse between the administration and strike leaders appear more likely than a compromise in the short term. It is the second time Guineans have undertaken a general strike this year.

The government had offered wage rises for government workers last week, but the increases were rejected as they translated into an increment of less than US $1 a month for most civil servants.

The price hike on fuel is due in part to the rising cost of oil worldwide. But it is also due to a rollback of subsidies for basic goods, including rice, as Guinea attempts to adhere to economic reform measures set forth by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Guinea, despite vast natural resources, is one of the world’s poorest countries. With inflation at nearly 30 percent and the local currency’s value falling daily, the cost of a 50-kilogram sack of rice is spiralling out of control to over US $25 – more than half of a civil servant’s monthly wage.

Under IMF policy, Guinea adopted a floating exchange rate in March 2005, and as a result the Guinean Franc has free-fallen, losing at least 38 percent of its value against currencies like the dollar, according to the IMF.