In Guinea, despite 24 previous years of authoritarian military rule, the population largely supported the December 2008 bloodless coup staged by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara’s immediately following President Lansana Conté’s death. Guineans in fact had little choice but to accept Dadis Camara’s promise of elections and a return to civilian rule – at least until the murder of 157 opposition protesters by members of the Guinean military at Conakry stadium in October 2009 seemed to dash all hope for such an outcome.