Conakry, Guinea – For greater than a decade, Oumou Barry has stored her torn, bloodstained gown in a plastic bag together with a CT scan of her damaged scapula as proof of her rape by a Guinean soldier at a stadium within the capital, Conakry, on September 28, 2009.
“That is the gown I used to be carrying that day,” the 63-year-old retired secretary and grandmother of 11 instructed Al Jazeera. “I all the time have it with me after I do interviews. That is proof of what they did to me.”
She was amongst tons of of Guineans who got here out to protest towards army strongman and coup chief Dadis Camara’s determination to run for the presidency.
In December 2008, Camara seized energy hours after the dying of President Lansana Conté, proclaiming himself head of the transitional authorities and promising to organise free and honest elections excluding members of the army authorities.
By April 2009, he had back-pedalled, hinting that he may run for president. A whole bunch took to the streets to peacefully protest, and the Guinean army entered the stadium the place protesters had gathered and began firing weapons on the crowd.
Not less than 150 individuals had been killed, in accordance with Human Rights Watch. Reviews additionally present that girls had been particularly focused by Guinean troopers. Witnesses mentioned that 4 ladies had been shot lifeless after being sexually assaulted.
“It got here as a shock to the general public due to the dimensions and scope of the sexual violence that was described,” Souleymane Sow, nation director at Amnesty Worldwide, instructed Al Jazeera. “From 2009 to 2012, the query of sexual violence and rape was by no means addressed. There weren’t many mechanisms that inspired victims to talk up.”
Nonetheless, on the thirteenth anniversary of the bloodbath, the extremely anticipated trial of Camara and different defendants started.
Barry was among the many first survivors to discuss the horror that unfolded on the stadium. Behind an workplace door on the victims’ affiliation headquarters, an organisation created to stress the federal government to hunt justice and reparations for survivors, she revealed her scars; dents on her leg and hips; and the thick stitched-up line travelling from her shoulder to her higher again.
The troopers had used reside ammunition in addition to machetes and knives to assault the protesters.
“I nonetheless don’t understand how I made it out of there,” she mentioned. “It was chaos in all places. When individuals realised there was no approach out of the stadium, they panicked. All people was stepping on one another … on our bodies.”
She struggled to recount what occurred subsequent as she crawled her strategy to the stadium’s exit after it had lastly opened. “A younger soldier screamed at me and instructed me that I used to be going to get what I deserved,” she mentioned. “He then knocked me down, unfold my legs and compelled himself on me.”
‘So many people misplaced all the pieces’
Gender-based violence stays a taboo topic within the West African nation, the place victims usually bear the stigma of their assaults.
“When my husband came upon that I used to be raped on the stadium, he divorced me,” Barry instructed Al Jazeera. “He felt it was too shameful to bear.”
In 2021, the police handled greater than 400 instances of rape, and a lot of the victims had been minors, in accordance with a latest report from Amnesty Worldwide, which concluded that the actual figures of rape instances are undoubtedly a lot increased.
In 2016, Guinea strengthened its penal code concerning rape, however victims who wish to file a criticism with the police are nonetheless required to point out a medical certificates to show assault.
“That’s why this trial is so vital,” Sow mentioned. “We not solely hope that the killings might be condemned, but additionally, the sexual crimes that had been dedicated. Impunity surrounding gender-based violence has to finish.”
Like different survivors of the bloodbath, Barry has discovered therapeutic in neighborhood. A couple of years in the past, she joined SEMA, the World Community of Victims and Survivors to Finish Wartime Sexual Violence, and has been advocating for different survivors to make their voices heard.
“600 individuals got here out to inform their aspect of the September twenty eighth story, however to today, many survivors received’t communicate out,” she mentioned.
“They did all kinds of issues to me,” Saran Cissé, additionally a member of SEMA, instructed Al Jazeera. “They behaved like animals. Once I lastly made it house very late that evening, I selected to cover my wounds to my household. I didn’t inform them what occurred. I attempted to sleep, however the ache was excruciating.”
Shortly after the bloodbath, Cissé left Guinea to go to Senegal for medical remedy.
“Once I returned house, I attempted to maneuver on, however individuals had been us, blaming us,” she mentioned. ”I couldn’t sleep at evening. I used to be traumatised and exhausted. Many people misplaced our husbands after they came upon we had been raped. So many people misplaced all the pieces.”
Within the aftermath of the tragedy, Camara denied accountability and blamed the violence on rogue safety forces.
A couple of months later nevertheless, a Human Rights Watch investigation discovered that crimes towards humanity had been dedicated and that the circumstances of lots of the killings and abuses described recommend that “they had been dedicated with both the consent or an express order from Guinean army commanders as excessive as President Moussa Dadis Camara”.
Within the decade after, human rights organisations have more and more complained about delays within the judicial course of.
“The was no political will for it to occur,” mentioned Frederic Loua, a human rights lawyer who served on the nationwide investigation fee launched in 2009. “Alpha Condé was president for over 10 years, and it wasn’t his precedence in any respect. It wasn’t a precedence for any of the political actors for that matter.”
A yr in the past, present President Mamadi Doumbouya got here to workplace after one other army coup. It’s below his authorities that the trial has been launched.
For a number of weeks, 11 suspects, together with Camara and former high-ranking authorities and army figures, have taken the stand in a trial broadcast on nationwide tv each evening.
“The stakes are excessive,” Conakry-based political analyst Kabinet Fofana instructed Al Jazeera. “If Dadis Camara is discovered responsible, it might set precedent for political leaders on this nation.
“We discover ourselves in an identical political equation to that of 2009 with a transitional authorities that’s anticipated to organise elections quickly, so, in fact, this trial is garnering loads of consideration and there’s a lot driving on it,” he added.
However activists and opposition leaders surprise what is going to occur subsequent.
“Who could be discovered responsible of what occurred?” requested Fofana, head of the Guinean Political Science Affiliation. “Who ordered the killings? Did somebody order troopers to rape ladies? If that’s the case, how can we show it when a lot of the suspects appear to be blaming the subsequent individual?”
On October 17, the prosecution started questioning Marcel Guilovagui, Camara’s former aide. He’s suspected to have performed an vital position within the bloodbath. However Guilavogui, who has been imprisoned since then, nonetheless rejects the accusations. “I used to be by no means on the stadium. I didn’t shoot anybody. I didn’t have a machete,” he mentioned.
Opposition chief Cellou Dalein Diallo, one of many protest organisers, was within the stadium along with his supporters and is relieved that the trial is lastly occurring.
“I used to be left for lifeless on the pitch,” he mentioned in a latest interview with RFI. Fortunately, I used to be picked up and brought to the Samory army camp, the place I regained consciousness.”
Diallo mentioned the trial requires an unbiased judiciary.
“There are professional issues that [the trial] might be used to sentence the organisers of the demonstration,” he mentioned.
In the meantime, Human Rights Watch reported that safety forces engaged in an organised operation to cover the proof of their crimes, persecuting survivors and eradicating the our bodies for burial in mass graves.
“There have been roadblocks throughout city,” Cissé instructed Al Jazeera. “Troopers in all places. It appeared to me that they had been doing all the pieces they may to cover proof of what that they had accomplished.”
“Following the trial has been tough as a result of most of us can’t afford to commute to court docket every single day,” Cissé mentioned. “We want authorities assist to attend the hearings. We don’t wish to watch the trial on tv. We should be there in court docket.”
However the sufferer’s affiliation’s precedence has been for his or her ordeals to be acknowledged and to acquire compensation.
“13 years shouldn’t be 13 days or 13 weeks,” mentioned Barry, who’s been anxiously ready for the day she’ll lastly get to inform her story from the stand.
“We wish this trial to lift consciousness to what can occur to the weak on this nation, in order that it by no means occurs once more,” she mentioned. “We wish reparations for what was accomplished to us and brought from us, so we are able to go on rebuilding and therapeutic.”