Niger said to be calm after coup

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33512, 18 April 1974, Page 7

Niger said to be calm after coup

t.V Z. Pr t s.< Associationf NIAMEY, April 17. Forty-eight hours alter the coup which toppled President Hatnani Diori. of Niger, the country’s new militarv leaders sav that the situation is completely under control.

A series of communiques issued yesterday by the Supreme Military Council; comprised of LieutenantColonel Seyni Kountie, who led the coup, and other officers; said that the situation was calm throughout the

country and that a dusk-to-dawn curfew was being observed. The council said that it had decided to free all political detainees and a spokesman for those released today ■said that they had assured the military of their support. No mention was made, however, of the whereabouts of President Diori, who had ruled the land-locked, country for 14 years. In Dakar. Radio Senegal said that the former President and his Ministers were under house arrest and there was nothing to substantiate reports that they had been hurt during the coup. The radio report added that Mrs Aissi Diori. the President’s wife, was believed to have been killed when she offered resistance to the officers who came tq arrest her. The Prime Minister of Libya (Major Jalloud) has flown to Niger to assess the situation, according to reports from Senegal. Red Cross visit.—The national chairman of the New Zealand Red Cross Society (Mr A. W. Beasley, of Wellington) left yesterday for a visit to the society’s teams in Ethiopia and Viet,'nam. While overseas, Mr Beasley will also discuss matters of mutual interest with the Red Cross of Thailand and Singapore. He expects to return to New Zealand in mid-May.—(P.A.)