CONAKRY, Guinea, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A top U.S. diplomat says he told the leader of Guinea, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, that Camara is responsible for mass killings and rapes in Guinea last week.
After meeting Monday with Camara, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William Fitzgerald said he told the Guinean leader he would be held responsible for the Sept. 28 violence, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Camara has denied responsibility.
"The message is, what happened on Sept. 28 is totally unacceptable, from every way you look at it -- the killings, the gender violence," Fitzgerald told the newspaper Tuesday. "I said, 'Mr. President, whether you like it or not, it's tied to you. You are responsible for Sept. 28. The buck stops with you.'"
He said Camara's response was noncommittal.
Camara, who took over when the military seized power in December, said he would not run for president in January but has since said he will run. Officials said 56 people were killed when soldiers shot at demonstrators Sept. 28 but human rights observers have put the number of dead at as many as 157, the Times said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the military government in Guinea "cannot remain in power," the Times reported.
"It was criminality of the greatest degree, and those who committed such acts should not be given any reason to expect that they will escape justice," Clinton told reporters in Washington.
