Bloody Monday [electronic resource] : the September 28 massacre and rapes by security forces in Guinea.

Title from PDF title page (Human Rights Watch, viewed Dec. 22, 2009).

"December 2009"--Table of contents page.

"This report was researched and authored by Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher; Peter Bouckaert, Emergencies director; Aloys Habimana, deputy Africa director; and Matthew Wells, Africa fellow."--P. 101.

"On Monday, September 28, 2009, members of Guinea's security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of opposition supporters peacefully gathered in the September 28 Stadium in the capital, Conakry. By late afternoon, at least 150 Guineans lay dead or dying in and around the stadium complex and the security forces had raped dozens of girls and women. Soldiers moved in on the neighborhoods from where the majority of opposition supporters hailed and committed further violations--including murder, rape, and pillage. Scores of opposition supporters were arbitrarily detained in army and police camps where many were subjected to serious abuses, including torture. Following the stadium violence, security forces engaged in an organized cover-up to hide the number of dead, removing scores of bodies from both the stadium and hospital morgues and burying them in mass graves. An investigation by Human Rights Watch in October 2009 found that the majority of killings, sexual assaults, and other abuses were committed by members of the elite Presidential Guard, in particular the unit at the time directly responsible for the personal security of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, Guinea's leader who took power through a coup in December 2008. Others who committed serious violations included gendarmes, police, and men in civilian clothes armed with machetes and knives. This Human Rights Watch report presents evidence suggesting that the abuses committed on and after September 28 rise to the level of crimes against humanity, which under international law requires the perpetrators to be held accountable under Guinean or international legal mechanisms. This finding is based on interviews with some 240 people, including victims, witnesses present in the stadium, relatives of missing people, soldiers who participated in the violence and the government cover-up, medical staff, humanitarian officials, diplomats, journalists, and opposition leaders.--P. [4] of cover.