Guinea protest in Brussels over opposition dissolution

Hundreds of supporters of Guinea's opposition coalition staged a demonstration in front of EU buildings in Brussels to protest its dissolution by Conakry's ruling junta.

The gathering, by the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), condemned the dissolution that was decreed August 6 and declared in defiance of the junta.

"The country or death!" organisers exhorted the crowd, which was watched over by a small contingent of Belgian police.

The rally demanded the exit of junta leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who overthrew former president Alpha Conde in September last year.

FNDC demonstrators said that, while they initially welcomed the junta's ruling National Committee of Reconciliation and Development (CNRD) and the end of Conde's reign, the junta had overstepped the line.

"We are going to try and tell authorities here (in the EU) that, no, it's not working in Guinea, no, there has been treason," said one Guinean civil society activist, Naby Laye Camara.

"They (the CNRD) haven't come for democracy, they have effectively come to confiscate power and even the liberty of people," he said.

Amnesty International has said the FNDC's dissolution amounted to a "serious attack" on the freedoms of association and peaceful assembly enshrined in Guinea's constitution.