Diallo Telli - Death

Death

On 18 July 1976, Diallo Telli was arrested at his home and imprisoned at Camp Boiro. Mamadi Keïta, the President's brother-in-law, was head of the commission of inquiry that condemned Telli. Telli was accused of leading a plot by Fulanis against the state of Guinea. He was subjected to intense interrogations, torture and an inadequate diet. After the second torture session, Telli was shattered and agreed to sign a "confession" of his treason. This was an incoherent document even after editing by the tribunal. In February 1977 five prominent prisoners were killed through the "black diet" (no food or water): Diallo Telli, ex-ministers Barry Alpha Oumar and Dramé Alioune, and army officers Diallo Alhassana and Kouyate Laminé.

The OAU did not react to the death of their former Secretary General. However, the disappearance of Telli, a widely respected international diplomat known for his dignity and good nature, did contribute to growing international awareness of the abuses of the Touré regime.

Read more about this topic:  Diallo Telli

Famous quotes containing the word death:

    I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him meerly seise me, and onely declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me. When I must shipwrack, I would do it in a sea, where mine impotencie might have some excuse; not in a sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming.
    John Donne (c. 1572–1631)

    You know, if this is Venus, or some other strange planet, we’re liable to run into some high-domed characters with green blood in their veins who’ll blast at us with their atomic death rayguns, and there we’ll be with these—these poor old-fashioned shootin’ irons.
    Edward L. Bernds (b. 1911)

    Yet always when I look death in the face,
    When I clamber to the heights of sleep,
    Or when I grow excited with wine,
    Suddenly I meet your face.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)