Calm returns to Senegal city after violent clashes
May 28, 2007
Tensions died down late Sunday in Senegal’s southern city of Kolda,
a day after violent clashes between police and protestors left one man
dead.
Senegal’s armed forces minister Becaye Diop, also mayor of
Kolda, met with residents to defuse the violence which followed the
funeral of 23-year-old Dominique Lopy, who died in police custody last
weekend.
Lopy had been picked up on suspicion of stealing from an official.
Diop talked with officials and youths in the home of a city elder, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
Several residents told AFP they blamed Lopy’s death on injuries he had suffered while in custody.
One of two civilians injured in the clashes died late Saturday, while the second was still in intensive care Sunday.
"I
will take all measures necessary to evacuate the injured (civilian)" to
Dakar, Diop told his audience which included some of Lopy’s relatives.
Addressing
young locals, he warned: "You mustn’t put yourself in a position of
confrontation with the security forces because you will lose out."
Three
police officers were injured Saturday when their vehicle overturned
while they were chasing the protestors. Local police chiefs refused to
comment on Saturday’s clashes.
In the central district of
Doumassou, where both Lopy and the latest victim of the violence lived,
the streets were quiet Sunday.
Local youths had clashed with police over this issue once before, on April 14, just after Lopy’s death was announced.
Lopy’s family said there was an autopsy report on his death but it had not been released for security reasons.
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