SIERRA LEONE: ISOLATED COUP LEADERS ATTEMPT TO GAIN SUPPORT

Описание: (9 Jun 1997) English/Nat

Sierra Leone's isolated coup leaders are shuttling back and forth to neighbouring African countries in a clear bid to muster support.

A day after talks with the president of Ivory Coast, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council headed to neighbouring Ghana.

The shuttle diplomacy comes on the eve of a U-N Security Council meeting on the crisis.

Meanwhile, the capital, Freetown, was at a standstill for the 15th straight day as residents continued to defy an order to return to their jobs.

Life looked as if it had returned almost to normal on the streets of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, on Monday.

But the after-tremors of last month's coup are still being felt in this West African state.

Shops, banks and private businesses stayed shut for the 15th straight day -- as residents defied orders to return to work or lose their jobs.

The nation-wide strike in this impoverished country is some measure of the unease that Sierra Leoneans feel about the new regime and the way it came to power.

Major Johnny Paul Koroma overturned the incumbent civilian president on the 25th of May -- in a military coup that prompted a spree of lootings and harassment.

The regime is aware of how isolated it is. On Sunday, nine representatives flew to the Ivory Coast for a meeting with its president, Henri Konan Bedie.

On Monday, they flew to Ghana to make overtures to the government there.

There were also reports in the independent Freetown newspaper, For Di People, that a delegation had been sent to Libya to seek backing from Colonel Moammar Gadhafi.

The regime needs all the friends it can get. Since the coup, Nigeria has been reinforcing its peace-keeping troops in the capital and is widely expected to stage a second military strike.

Last Monday, 50 people died in an unsuccessful bid to force out Koroma and restore the civilian president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

But even if they do manage to talk their neighbours out of using military force, there is scant support for the regime on the streets of Freetown.

Though, some seemed prepared to give Koroma the benefit of the doubt.

SOUNDBITE:
Even we don't want the new government we should still give them time to see what's up because there was a time when they were talking about peace before election, election before peace and all this. We were forced to democracy. Now we have the chance that peace is here and we can face democracy.
SUPER CAPTION: Voxpop

Others said the U-N should negotiate with Koroma -- as the current power on the ground.

SOUNDBITE:
I like them, I would like them to be called, talk to them to give their own views, what is their problem, so they could negotiate with the United Nations and then hand over to whatever government they want to.
SUPER CAPTION: Voxpop

Some civil servants, however, are turning up for work.

SOUNDBITE:
Well, we as civil servants, we are in to obey the government of the day if they give our regulation, if they give a directive we've got to go by it.
SUPER CAPTION: Alosine O. Kamara, official in the agricultural ministry

Even so, a rally on Sunday against foreign intervention -- organised by the coup leaders -- was not well attended.

The turnout of several thousand was dwarfed in the capital's huge sports stadium.

In an address, Koroma made much of the fact that he wanted his country to find its own way out of crisis.

Koroma claims he staged the coup to rescue the peace process -- and claims Kabbah was allowing a cease-fire between the government and the Revolutionary United Front to collapse.




Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...