(Conakry) – Families of victims of the September 2009 massacre by Guinea’s security forces are still awaiting justice 10 years later, 6 human rights groups said today. The groups released a video to mark the massacre’s tenth anniversary, featuring victims pleading for the trial to go ahead.

The security forces killed more than 150 people demonstrating in a stadium in the capital, Conakry, in the massacre, which began on September 28, 2009. Hundreds of people were wounded and more than a hundred women were victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence in the events of September 28 and their aftermath.

The organizations are the Association of Victims, Parents and Friends of the September 28 Massacre (AVIPA), Equal Rights for All (MDT), the Guinean Human Rights Organization (OGDH), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.

“A decade has passed since the stadium massacre in Conakry, but for those who lost their sons, daughters, fathers or mothers, the horror of that day remains forever etched in their memory,” said Asmaou Diallo, president of AVIPA. “Ten years is already too long to wait when one has a thirst for justice. We have the right to see those responsible for these atrocities to be held to account.” Shortly before noon on September 28, 2009, several hundred members of Guinea’s security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of people peacefully gathered at a stadium for a rally to oppose then-junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara’s presidential run. The security forces also individually or gang raped women, and sexually assaulted them with objects such as batons and bayonets. The security forces then engaged in an organized cover-up to hide the extent of the killings by sealing off and removing bodies from the stadium and morgues and burying them in mass graves, many of which have yet to be identified. The domestic investigation, which began in February 2010 and concluded in late 2017, progressed slowly amid political, financial, and logistical obstacles. But in a country in which impunity largely prevails when security forces are implicated in crimes, the closing of the investigation sent a strong signal and raised hopes for the opening of a trial that could bring justice to the victims. In April 2018, former Justice Minister Cheick Sako set up a steering committee tasked with the practical organization of the trial. This committee has since identified Conakry’s Court of Appeal as the location. However, almost two years since the investigation closed, a trial date has yet to be scheduled. The steering committee was supposed to meet once a week but it has met only intermittently. Although Guinea’s Supreme Court in July dismissed all appeals relating to the end of the investigation, the judges presiding over the trial have yet to be appointed. Some survivors have died as progress in the case languished. A timeline of the events can be accessed here.