Amadou Diallo

Top Officials In Guinea Meet Plane Carrying Peddler's Body

SUSAN SACHS / New York Times 16feb1999

[More on Amadou Diallo]

Amadou Diallo's body was flown to Conakry, Guinea, yesterday.

CONAKRY, Guinea, Feb 15 — the prime minister of this small West African nation joined an array of Government officials. family and friends on the sweltering ail port tarmac to welcome Amadou Diallo's patents as they arrived from the United States today to find that their sun, in death, had attained the status of a national hero

"Like many of our people, he left to go to another country and he worked hard and studied hard," said Prime Minister Sidya Touré, speaking of Mr. Diallo, the Guinean street peddler who was shot to death by four New York City police officers on Feb. 4 "But he is a Guinean, one of ours always, and it's natural that we should show solidarity with him because of the way he died "

Mr. Diallo's coffin, it plain pine box with his name and destination written in felt-tipped pen on the top, was removed from the plane that brought it front Newark International Airport, through Parts, to Conakry. the capital. It was driven in a screeching motorcade of air-conditioned Government vans and battered private cars that sped along a rutted road lined with fruit vendors and smoking grills to the city morgue

A two-hour rally outside the morgue and then a Government-sponsored prayer service for Mr. Diallo are scheduled for Tuesday. On Wednesday, the family and numerous Government officials will take the coffin 300 miles to Hollade Bouru, the village where Mr. Diallo's father was born

The father, Saikou Diallo, said that as a teen-ager, his son had spent school vacations in the village. The son will he hurled next to his grandfather, who was a teacher and scholar of the Koran

The presence of many of the country's top ministers in a crowd of about 100 people at the airport welcoming ceremony was just one sign of the distress and excitement that Mr. Diallo's killing has amused in Guinea.

Many young men at the airport wore white T-shirts on which Mr. Diallo's photograph and name were printed in black. -the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has organized the caravan to accompany the body to the cemetery on Wednesday One ministry official said the trip could take much longer than the normal five hours because people living along the route had been encouraged, on Government radio and television, to loin it as the motorcade passed then homes.

The Diallo cam has received much attention in the official media, partly as a cautionary tale of what can happen to a young black immigrant to New York City, and partly as a reflection of the unrelenting coverage that the killing has received in the United States.

It has also provided an eye-opetung ac-count of black political activism in the United States, several Guineans said. Accounts of the rallies held in New York City after the shooting have been printed in the newspapers, and most people on the street, It seemed, now know exactly how many bullets — 41 — were fired by the officers who killed the 22-year-old immigrant.

"We are not naive. We know there is racism in America," said a man named Antoine waiting for friends outside the airport. He refused to give his last name "And we have many bodies of our compatriots coming back to Guinea who have been killed there. But now we want to show or support for the struggle of black people in America."

The parents of Mr. Diallo, who have been divorced for five years, flew home with the Rev. Al Sharpton. whose National Action Network made the flight arrangements and shepherded the family through news conferences, public appearances and tours of New York City.

Mr. Sharpton, on his first visit to Guinea, said Mr. Diallo's mother had asked him to be the executor of her son's estate. He said he would stay in the country until after the funeral. "I promised this lady I would stay with her son until he is laid to rest," said Mr. Sharpton during the flight, nod-ding toward Kadiadou Diallo.

Mrs. Diallo said she and her former husband had met several of the men who are now Government ministers when the couple had an import-export business in Thailand. They imported gemstones from Guinea for jewelers in Southeast Asia, beginning about 1984.

Amadou Diallo spent much of his youth out of Guinea. His parents said he studied at a French international school in Bangkok, starting in 1990, and then in 1993, in Singapore, took courses in computers and accounting, conducted in English.

Both parents also are well traveled. The father said he followed a family and tribal merchant tradition, starting at age 17 by buying and selling goods between Guinea and neighboring Liberia and Ivory Coast. He left Guinea in the early 1960's, because then-President Sekou Touré restricted private business, and eventually settled in Thailand after a round-the-world trip to the United States, Europe and Asia to decide which countries had the hest climate for trading.

He said his son was also observing that tradition in his work as a street vendor. "He was good at business," Saikou Diallo said.

• Officers in Bronx Fire 41 Shots, And an Unarmed Man Is Killed - New York Times 5feb1999
• A Hard Worker With a Gentle Smile - New York Times 5feb1999

Mindfully.org note: The two photos above are from African Immigrant Shot At 41 Times By NY Police, Buried In West Africa - Jet 8mar1999