Sudan counter-coup; rebels to be tried

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32667, 24 July 1971, Page 17

Sudan counter-coup; rebels to be tried

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright)

CAIRO, July 23.

President Jaafar El Nemery has decided to proceed immediately with the trial of leaders of the coup which ousted him for 72 hours, the Middle East News Agency reported from Khartoum today.

Quoting Radio Omdurman, the agency said that four higher military councils would try all the coup leaders.

Earlier the radio reported that all the leaders of the Left - wing pro - Communist group who toppled the President from office for three days, ending yesterday, were under arrest. President El Nemery appealed to his people to root out Communists and traitors. The counter-coup came after the dramatic forcing down of a British Overseas Airways Corporation VCIO airliner in Libya carrying the new President, Colonel Babakr El Nur, from London.

Colonel El Nur and his

chief assistant, Major Farouk Hamadallah, left the plane in Benghazi after the Libyan authorities said the lives of the other passengers would be in danger. Omdurman Radio said that President El Nemery would “continue to lead the nation.” In Tripoli, Libya denied British charges that threats had been used to force the British airliner carrying the Sudanese leaders to land in Benghazi. Only hours after the predawn incident at Benghazi, Iraqi officials in Bagdad reported that a special plane carrying several top-ranking Iraqis to Khartoum to greet Colonel El Nur blew up in the air over Jedda, Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi announcement said most of those aboard—including several top Government officials and poli-

ticians —died in the explosion and crash, the cause of which was not immediately known.

The counter-coup appeared to have been short but sharp. Hie Middle East News Agency soon was reporting that a lieutenant loyal to President El Nemery had led a detachment of troops to recapture the radio station. The coup leaders’ headquarters were also reported to have been shelled.

Thousands of pro-Nemery demonstrators surged through the streets chanting slogans of support. It was not immediately clear, however, whether the forces that returned President Nemery to power were exclusively Sudanese. Egypt maintains a military academy in Khartoum and an air base in Sudan.