Page 6--Friday, July 31, 198f-The Michign Daily
Rebels
stage co up
in, Gambia
,4
DAKAR, Senegal (UPI)-With their president in
London for the royal wedding, rebel troops in Gambia
yesterday led a bloody coup against the tiny West
African nation's 16-year-old democratic government.
The insurgents -declared a revolutionary council
was in control, but reports reaching Dakar said
police loyal to President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara
were offering some resistance. The rebels claimed
control of key communications and transportation
points.
THERE WAS NO immediate word on the fate of
Vice President Assan Musa Camara, who had been in
charge while Jawara was in London for Wednesday's
wedding of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana
Spencer.
The dawn coup ended, at least temporarily, elected
rule in one of Africa's few functioning democracies, a
former British territory that was the setting for the
novel "Roots."
The rebel radio identified the new chief of state as
Kukli Sanyang. Diplomats said it was mnclear if he
was a member of the paramilitary field for-
ces-Gambia's army of a few hundred men who
carried out the coup-or a political opposition figure.
JAWARA, PRESIDENT since independence in
1965, went into-seclusion outside London, a Gambian
Embassy spokesman said.
Most communications with the capital of Banjul
were cut and the airport was closed.
Reports reaching Dakar indicated several deaths
with sporadic fighting still going on. The insurgents
held the capital's radio station, bridges and ferries
across the Gambia River and the airport.
The rebel-held Radio Banjul said the new ruling
National Revolutionary Council included three
military men and nine civilians belonging to the
Socialist and Revolutionary Labor Party, apparently
an underground group not -among officially
recognized political parties.
4
TESTIMONY SAYS CUBAN WEAPONS PURCHASES NEAR RECORD:
Haig discusses Soviet arms sales
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of
State Alexander Haig Jr. said the
Soviet Union is sending weapons to
Cuba in-near-record amounts this year
and that some of the arms are being
reshipped to Central America.
If the present pace of arms shipmen-
ts to Cuba is maintained, it would
double the 1980 total and would be the
most for any year since1962, the year of
the Cuban missile crisis, Haig said.
"WHILE MOST of the tonnage, is
believed to be earmarked for Cuba's
regular armed forces and its newly
created territorial militia," Haig said,
"there is solid evidence that some of the
goods are being reshipped to Central
America."
Haig made his remarks in testimony
prepared for the Senate Armed Ser-
vices Committee and in a brief session
with reporters afterward. The commit-
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Department released copies of the
testimony.
When asked by reporters where the
Soviet weapons were being rerouted
from Cuba, Haig said: "Considerable to
Nicaragua and clearly, substantial
amounts have found their way into El
Salvador."
THE SECRETARY said "the United
States has had discussions with the
Soviet Union on this subject and there
have been expressions of concern. Thus
far, I would describe those discussions
as unsatisfactory. But they are still in
process and it remains to be seen."
The State Department has said
previously that Soviet bloc arms were
being shipped through Cuba to El
Salvador and Nicaragua. While Haig
has threatened to go to "the source"; to
stop the arms shipments, meaning,
Cuba, he has never elaborated on the
threat.
State Department officials said Wed-
nesday that the department is actively
at work on the administration's policy
toward Cuba.
WHILE HAIG didn't provide any
figures on Soviet arms shipments to
Cuba, he was quoted in an interview
with the Boston Globe Wednesday as
saying the Soviets shipped 40,000 tons of-
sophisticated arms to Cuba during the
first seven months of the year. An aide
to Haig said he stood by that figure.
In his congressional testimony
yesterday, Haig complaited that while
the Soviets are increasing arms ship-
ments to Cuba, Congress resilts ap-
proving the administration's military
assistance program.
"The current state of affairs in the
Congress regarding security assistance
I
I
Haig
... discusses Soviet arms
is alarming," Haig said. "This short-
sighted approach to security assistance
cripples our foreign policy and places
U.S. credibility on the line."
HAIG SAID THE Soviet Union spent
$16 billion last year on arms for
developing nations, including Cuba,
while the United States "transferred
only $10 billion in equipment."
The request for security assistance
funds is contained in the ad-
ministration's- foreign aid bill, which
has encountered serious resistance in
Congress.
The previous Congress also declined
to approve the Carter administration's
aid package two years in a row. In-
stead, the nation's assistance effort
stayed at old spending levels under a
continuing resolution.
"I must state in all candor that we
are liable to serious consequences if we
do not remedy this depressing situation
in fiscal year 1982," Haig told the ar-
med services committee.
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