Gambian rebels still hold hostages

Press, 3 August 1981, Page 8

Gambian rebels still hold hostages

NZPA-Reuter Dakar The President of the tiny West African State of The Gambia (Sir Dawda Jawara) called on Marxist rebels yes terday to surrender, saying their coup bid had. been crushed with the help of Senegalese troops. • But the rebels apparently still held hostages, including members of Sir Dawda’s family and Government, and continued to broadcast threats to execute them.

Senegalese Government sources said the 12-man National Revolutionary Council set' up by a Marxist revolutionary, Kukli Samba Sanyang, had fled to a suburb of the Gambian capital of Banjul. The Senegalese troops, ordered by Sir Dawda to quell the uprising under a 1965 mutual defence pact, were combing through - the capital after retaking the airport and radio station.

They were advancing slowly to try to limit bloodshed, sources said. Naval and Army units as well as airborne troops were used in the assault.

Diplomatic sources in Dakar said the rebels retransmitted death threats against their hostages from an unidentified source on a slightly different frequency from earlier broadcasts. This indicated that the rebels, who staged their coup bid on Thursday while Sir Dawda was in London for the Royal wedding, were still holding out against the Senegalese troops. A rebel broadcast yesterday said the hostages were being held at a police station at Bakau, a suburb of Banjul Bkm south-west of the town centre.

Diplomatic sources said Senegalese paratroopers who dropped on to Ganjul airport met stiff resistance on their push into the capital.

Two paratroopers were ■killed in the drop, informed sources said, but no clear idea has emerged of the extent of casualties in the fighting.

Sir Dawda said -in his broadcast calling for the surrender of those staging the coup attempt: “Thanks to the joint efforts of the loyalist Gambian forces and the Senegalese forces, the rebellion has been crushed.”

Sir Dawda, ruler of The Gambia for the past 19 years, has said the rebels had seized arms and ammunition frdm Banjul armoury.

He also said that they were armed and financed from abroad, but did not specify which country he had in mind. In November he called in Senegalese troops after accusing Libya of trying to destabilise The Gambia, which does not have an army of its own.