A prayer for peace, in SMS-speak

Here is a message from Faranah, Guinea:

I pray God that peace finally reigns in the country nothing but peace.

It originally came in Guinean SMS-speak this way:

Moi g ne s8 temoin ,mais g pr8 Dieu enfin q la paix régne dans pays rien q la paix.Pref de Faranah

Guinean and Int'l civil society calls for restraint

The International Federation for Human Rights has released this statement calling for restraint in Guinea:

The 101 organizations of civil society of Guinea, France, West Africa and internationally condemn the violence and attacks against civilians, human rights defenders and political actors in Guinea. The organizations call on all actors and especially national authorities to exercise restraint and moderation.

The violence that marked the election campaign for the second round of presidential elections and the disproportionate strength of the defense and security that have been responsible for serious human rights violations (assaults, arbitrary arrests and detention, robbery, home invasions) are acts contrary to national law and, as possibly violations of the international law of human rights.

Messages from Guinea Supporting Democracy

As an Alliance Guinea election monitoring volunteer, I have been reviewing SMS messages that Guineans have been sending us about the presidential campaign. One thing that strikes me over and over is that many Guineans remain resolved to support democracy and peace. Of course there are problems, but most news sources ONLY report bad news. That's not the full story.

To give some balance to the purely negative news, here are a couple messages that arrived today in our Ushahidi crowsourcing platform:

JE SOUHAITE TOUJOUR LA PAIX EN GUINÉE,LA RECONSILIATION,MERCI.
[sent November 3, 2010]

Nous nous voulon un ?lection paisible qui se passera sans heine
[sent November 3, 2010]