Conakry - Large numbers of troops have been deployed in Pita, a town in Guinea where a rise in electricity prices led to bloody clashes between demonstrators and police, residents said on Wednesday.

Residents contacted by AFP said the army had taken up posts on streets in the centre of town and around it, firing shots in the air to prevent civilians from going out, while shops and administrative officers were closed.

At least one person was killed and five were seriously injured Tuesday when police opened fire on an angry crowd rioting over the power price increases in the west African state of Guinea, eyewitnesses and hospital officials said.

Local authorities were concerned that the public burial of a youth killed by police would cause further trouble and the body was privately laid to rest by his family, an official said on Wednesday, asking not to be named.

A source close to local government said the rioting erupted when electricity bills were delivered in Pita.

Medical sources and witnesses said three of the serious casualties have been evacuated to a hospital in Conakry, the capital 350km to the south, while while more than 30 sustained bullet wounds, according to a revised toll given on Wednesday .

Some witnesses said as many as three people may have been killed.

Guinea's Minister of Territorial Administration Kiridi Bangoura arrived in Pita overnight on Tuesday and went into talks behind closed doors with the governor for the local Mamou region, Abou Cheri Camara, and other officials.

No details were released about these talks which took place on Wednesday morning under tight military security.

The district administrator in Pita, Ibrahima Blaky Bangoura, said that he was "confident about a satisfactory outcome to this crisis."

"Traditionally, the population of Pita is not a warlike one, but it should be noted that when people get angry, it always finishes in bloodshed," he said.

"It's also true that it was a badly chosen time to raise the prices of consumer products, but right from the outset of this protest we wanted to talk to the demonstrators to avoid a tragedy we all regret," he added.

A source close to local authorities said the trouble began when residents received their bills and the price rise from the national electricity company, Sogel.

Angry demonstrators looted the local Sogel headquarters of the local power company, wrecking computers and burning cars and motorbikes belonging to staff before police moved in using live ammunition, witnesses said.

The disturbances come against a background of an increasingly desperate situation in Guinea, with galloping inflation, 70 percent unemployment and complete lack of private investment, all with catastrophic social effects.

The prices of fuel and rice have reached record levels, hitting an already overstretched population ever harder, Ben Sekou Sylla, head of the country's umbrella body for civil society organisations, said after the riots. - Sapa-AFP

Published on the Web by IOL on 2004-11-03 17:06:01