Question 2.31

2.31 Were you involved in the political life of Guinea?

No, but I felt that it was important to raise my voice to defend the dignity of the human person and respect for the life of the people of this country. I was the only one capable of protesting against the downward spiral of a military regime that could be guilty of actual murders. I was certainly never afraid to defend the rights and political positions of the main opposition figure of that period, Dr. Alpha Condé, the current president of the Republic. When he was in exile in Paris, I came to visit him in his apartment on the Place d’Italie, which the CMRN did not like at all.

The Catholic Church was a minority, but she was the only truly free institution. I knew that Christians as well as Muslims were waiting impatiently for me to speak out on the everyday concerns of the life of the people. After the failed coup by Colonel Diarra Traoré, violence, arrests, and murders were once again unleashed.

The Italian ambassador, Mr. Roberto Rosellini, informed by one of his compatriots that Colonel Diarra Traoré and three other persons were hiding in the house of an Italian national, was obliged to intervene to avoid implicating Italy in any way. He went and found Diarra Traoré in his hiding place. Traoré asked him for gas and a 4x4 in order to escape to Mali. The ambassador refused his request, because such an act would run the risk of implicating Italy in the attempted coup. The ambassador therefore decided to entrust Diarra Traoré and the three other wanted men to the minister of foreign affairs, Monsieur Facinet Touré. He wanted international law to be applied so as to avoid bloodshed.

Mr. Rosellini then came to see me, not in his official capacity as ambassador, but as a Catholic, so that we could combine our efforts and save human lives. Diarra Traoré himself wrote me a hasty, misspelled letter dated July 7, 1985:

“Archbishop, it is with a broken heart that I write this letter to you today to ask you to be so kind as to intervene in the name of the Catholic Church on my behalf to the Head of State to ask him for an exceptional pardon. I have committed the worst mistake of my life, but I know that it had to be inscribed in my life, because as a believer, all destiny is inevitable. I ask you to do this for me, and you are quite capable of doing it; for I know of your legendary humanitarianism. Do not let me die, because as a human I think that I can still be redeemed. I am not telling you anything that you do not already know, but spare my brother from making the final decision. I am the father of a very large family made up of fourteen children who are still very young. I have complete confidence in you, and I count on your goodness of heart. May God provide you with vigorous health and long life. Amen. Diarra.”

He entrusted the letter to Lieutenant Bangoura Panival Sama, who delivered it to me on July 11, 1985, at 10:30 P.M. Before we went our separate ways, Lieutenant Bangoura Panival said to me: “You know, Archbishop, that I am Catholic, and a Catholic never lies or cheats anyone. I promised Diarra Traore that I would deliver this letter to you. How can I prove to him that I kept my promise?” I gave him the souvenir photo of my episcopal ordination; and on the back of the photo I then wrote, above my signature: “I did receive your letter. I pray for you and give you my blessing. Have courage, I commend you to God.”

On July 28, 1985, another letter arrived bearing the signatures of twenty-one people, with those of Commanders Kabassan Abraham Keita and Abdourahamane Kaba heading the list, along with the signatures of Captains Karifa Traoré, Fodé Sangare, et Ahmadou Kouyaté. The letter read: “We, the undersigned, respectfully convey to you our sentiments of profound gratitude and our utmost appreciation for your noble task of national reconciliation, in which you were one of the undisputed heroes. As a Man of God, be assured that from the depths of our prison cell, we have been very moved by the results of your actions as a pilgrim of peace and humanitarianism to help keep this country from reliving the tragedy of recent memory.”

In order to try to save the soldiers who had been arrested at the time of the failed conspiracy, I requested a meeting with the president, General Lansana Conté, and also with Madame Henriette Conté, his wife, in order to remind them of God’s commandment: “Thou shalt not kill!” Since I was unable to obtain a meeting as requested, I decided to write them a letter so that Guinea would not experience again the hell of the Sékou Touré regime, which so often had resorted to bloodshed. Much later, some dignitaries of the regime replied, saying that military law demands that traitors be shot. And so the leaders or the assumed perpetrators of the July 1985 coup as well as some members of the former government of Sékou Touré were all put to death. I was dismayed but helpless.

Without getting involved in politics, the Church in Guinea has always been firmly committed to proclaiming the rights of God and of man, in defense of human and moral values. Without truth, a country walks in darkness and causes the worst of misfortunes to befall its people. The Church must be involved in the daily life of people. No Christian can be cut off from the human condition or from the history of his contemporaries.