SIERRA LEONE: LEADERS OF MILITARY COUP SHUT ALL WEST AFRICAN BORDERS

Описание: (25 May 1997) Natural Sound

The leaders of a military coup in Sierra Leone have shut down all of the West African nation's borders, claiming they are now in control of the country.

A new spokesman for the mutineers, Capt. Paul Thomas, said on national radio that the designated head of state would address the nation in due course.

He did not say who that was, but described himself as the spokesman for the Armed Forces Ruling Council - the first formal name the mutineers have used.

The coup leaders said earlier that civilian President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah had fled the country, but this was impossible to confirm.

Thomas called on all foreign troops in Sierra Leone to return to their posts, and called for co-operation of all security forces.

Fierce fighting with Nigerian troops assigned to defend Sierra Leone from rebel attacks centered around the State House national legislature and the Treasury.

There was looting in the well-to-do Wilkinson Road area.

Mutinous troops targeted homes belonging to Freetown's Lebanese community.

But Thomas warned looters would be shot on sight.

He claimed the troops had taken control of the State House, the country's legislative assembly by mid-afternoon.

The radio announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

There were four dead, including a woman and a teenager, and casualties were still arriving.

The coup attempt, launched at dawn with a massive prison break, comes weeks after a rebel war appeared to have restarted in this West African country.

A fragile peace accord last year ended the five-year war that ravaged the country and created hundreds of thousands of refugees.

An APTV camera crew was in Freetown two years ago (May 1995), where it filmed pictures of soldiers training.

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