CONAKRY - A SENIOR member of Guinea's military junta which seized power in December has urged people to burn thieves alive saying the west African nation's prisons are overcrowded.

'I am asking you to burn alive armed bandits who are caught red-handed,' said Captain Moussa Tiegoro Camara, in charge of fighting crime and drug trafficking.

'Our jails and our correctional centres can no longer take in people and the situation cannot carry on like this,' he said late Tuesday at a meeting discussing security measures in the capital.

'It's better to kill all those who kill rather than keeping them' in prison, he said.

The call was immediately slammed by rights activists.

'This is unacceptable and intolerable,' said Thierno Diallo.

Since seizing power after the death of Guinea's longserving leader Lansana Conte at the end of December, the junta has launched an official crackdown against drug traffickers, the production and sale of counterfeit medicines and corruption.

But banditry in Conakry has been on the rise and several recent incidents have targeted junta members and their families. -- AFP