'Mass graves' found in Guinea

Relatives of people allegedly killed by the administration of Guinea's first president more than 30 years ago, say they have discovered mass graves where hundreds of people were buried.

A spokeswoman for the group, Aminata Barry, said local people in the western town of Kindia had led them to the sites in the hills and forests around the town.

Some of the victims died a horrific death

Ms Barry, whose own father died during political repression, said the group planned to bring in foreign help, to provide proof of what she described as the "genocide" committed by the late President Sekou Toure, who led Guinea as a one-party state from independence in 1958 until his death in 1984.

The group, called the Children of the Victims of Boiro Camp, hopes to eventually sue the Guinean state before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

'Horror'

Ms Barry said most of the victims in the graves near Kindia had been killed during the night of 17-18 October 1971, when repression reached its zenith.

One grave, Ms Barry said, is believed to contain about 400 bodies, and another, the remains of soldiers.

She said a third grave was so large it was impossible to give an exact figure.

50,000 people are believed to have been killed under Sekou Toure

"We could never have imagined horror on such a scale," she told the BBC.

"We knew that there were mass graves, but we did not know how the people had been executed."

She said many of the victims were told to dig their own graves, then they were put into bags which were hung from trees.

Soldiers then reportedly fired on the bags which fell into the grave.

Ms Barry says that grenades were then placed on the graves to prevent people from approaching.

Demining work had to be carried out to gain access to the graves.

'Rehabilitation'

The group says it is now in touch with non-governmental organisations specialising in exhuming human remains, including groups which have worked in Nicaragua.

Will President Conte be called before the ICJ?

It wants to prove that there was a genocide in Guinea although there was no war at the time.

Fifty thousand people died at the time, according to the group, a figure which has been confirmed by Amnesty International.

It now aims to bring the incumbent president, Lansana Conte, before the ICJ in The Hague for, it says, "rehabilitating" Sekou Toure.

The Guinean authorities have given a new name to Camp Boiro, and recently renamed the presidential palace after Sekou Toure.