Sidya Touré

Sidya Touré (born 1945) is a Guinean politician. He was Prime Minister of Guinea from 1996 to 1999 and is currently the President of the Union of Republican Forces (UFR), an opposition party.

Having previously been in exile in Côte d'Ivoire, Touré, who was considered a "reform-minded technocrat", was appointed as Prime Minister by President Lansana Conté on 9 July 1996, becoming Guinea's first Prime Minister since 1984.

Touré's appointment, which followed a coup attempt in February 1996, was characterized as part of an effort by Conté to pursue reforms. However, after a few years of Touré's reformist policies, Conté appeared to change course and dismissed Touré, who was succeeded by Lamine Sidimé on 8 March 1999.

After leaving the government, Touré became an opposition leader; he is currently the President of the UFR.

Along with the other major opposition leaders, Touré announced in early November 2003 that he would boycott the December 2003 presidential election due to concerns that it would not be free and fair and the government's failure to accept opposition demands.

After Touré organized a rally in the Conakry suburb of Gbessia in late 2003, student riots broke out, and as a result Touré was detained and questioned. Subsequently, in late April 2004, he was arrested and detained for one night. Touré was charged with plotting to overthrow the government, and although he was released on bail, he was barred from politics and from travelling to other countries. He was cleared of the charges by an appeal court in July 2004.

Touré participated in a major opposition protest in Conakry on 28 September 2009; the protest was directed against the suspected intent of junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara to stand as a candidate in the January 2010 presidential election. The military attacked the protesters, killing many of them; Touré suffered a serious head injury and was hospitalized. Although the junta barred opposition leaders from speaking to the press, Touré covertly phoned the BBC's Focus on Africa from a hospital bathroom and gave his account of events; he said that soldiers "just started to shoot people directly ... They tried to kill us." Touré was released from custody on 29 September and returned to his home (which was also the UFR headquarters), discovering that it had been ransacked. On 1 October 2009 he said that the opposition could not talk to the government in the wake of such violence and that planned elections needed to be held under a neutral authority. He rejected the junta's offer of a national unity government, saying that the people were mourning and were in a state of shock from the events of 28 September; according to Touré, the immediate priority was to determine who gave the order to open fire on the protesters.

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