Residents of the West African state of Guinea were bemused to find their small country pushed into the spotlight by an attempted rape scandal at the top of the International Monetary Fund - and divided over how to react.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) resigned as head of the IMF on Thursday after a New York hotel maid, believed to be a Guinean, accused him of attacking her, dashing his hopes of becoming president of France, Guinea's colonial-era ruler.

Labe region
"From what we've seen in the media, she's a Guinean from the Labe region," said Conakry resident Souleymane Bah of the woman, whose name is not being published for legal reaons. "We don't understand why the Guinean authorities have not yet taken a position on this case."

Guinea's forays into the world headlines in the past have typically centered around its own frequent upheavals since independence from France in 1960, or around big mining deals aimed at bringing its bauxite and iron ore deposits to market.

Smearing DSK
But on Thursday the bars and cafes of Conakry, the crumbling seaside capital of the country of ten million, were abuzz with competing views on whether Strauss-Kahn's accuser was a victim, or part of a plot to wreck his French presidential ambitions to the benefit of the sitting head of state, Nicolas Sarkozy. "It is a strategy to smear the man, because Sarkozy saw him gaining ground," Sene Djaboula, a taxi driver, theorized. "Guineans shouldn't interpret this in any other way."