Coup casualties low

Press, 8 June 1979, Page 5

Coup casualties low

NZPA-Reuter London The first travellers out of Ghana since this week’s military revolt said yesterday that the capital Accra was returning to normal after two days of intermittent shooting and looting. They reported only a few civilian casualties in the junior officers’ coup d’etat that brought a crusading radical, Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings to power at the head of a Revolutionary Council that includes a sergeant, two corporals and a private. “The street battles took place in a tropical downpour but occasionally the gunfire and bazookas drowned the sound of the rain. Almost everyone stayed indoors for two days,” said one man. He said the soldiers’ anger

had been aimed at senior Officers and members of the Lebanese business community, whom they accused of corruption. “The leaders of the coup were handing out weapons to the lower ranks and searching for officers,” he added.

The travellers reported that Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings had appeared on television accompanied by guntoting guards to announce his aim of cleaning up Ghana, which is beset with economic problems and corruption.

The youthful flight lieutenant — his age has been put at between 29 and 32 years — was described by several people as a mystery figure. Some said he was half Scottish, half Ghanaian, others believed he was the

son of a German father and Ghanaian mother. Last month Flight Lieutenant Rawlings failed in a coup attempt and had been tried in a court-martial by the ousted Government of General Fred Akuffo. "That court-martial established his reputation and won him some sympathy,” said a foreigner. “The newspapers published his evidence criticising Ghana and his Leftwing thinking. I think some students and ordinary soldiers began to support him then,” he added. The new Government has said that the General Election planned for June 18 will go ahead, but one man doubted this, saying: “I can’t understand why anybody would launch a coup just to rule Ghana for two weeks.”