The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 5, 1995 - 9F French force coup leader to release Comoros president Commandos storm island nation air and sea MORONI, Comoros Islands (AP)- Cornered by French commandos, a vet- eran mercenary freed the Comoros president yesterday and haggled for a way out of his latest coup-gone-bad. Six hundred French troops stormed this African island nation by plane and speedboat at dawn, threw together a bizarre convoy of firetrucks and a mo- bie airplane stairway and headed for coupmaker Bob Denard's compound. At least three people were killed during the landing, but not a shot was fired at the compound. Denard, interviewed last night by French television stations, said he expectes to surrender today. "I'm not going to resist," Denard said. "I await nothing more, except to leave honorably. ... It's a question of hours." Earlier, he had said negotia- tions were continuing. As the tide moved against Denard, Comorian Prime Minister Mohammed Caabi el Yachroutou, who hid out in the French Embassy following the coup, announced in a fax sent to Paris that he had formed a coalition government sup- ported by 13 parties. Yachroutou also announced on Ra- dio Comoros an amnesty for soldiers allied with Denard. French Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Raymond Germanos initially told a news conference in Paris that Denard If I disarm my men, they'll be dead." - Bob Denard Comoros coupmaker mercenaries at Hahaya airport, said Capt. Robert Pellegrin, the commander. After securingthe airfield, the French landed several planes of troops and commandeered airport vehicles, includ- ing two fire trucks and a mobile air- plane stairway. The strange procession reached the area nearmilitary headquarters at night- fall, and soldiers closed roads around Denard's hillside compound. The French demanded his uncondi- tional surrender, citing an international warrant they issued for his arrest. Pros- ecutors said he had left France illegally as they probed his role in the death of another Comorian president in 1989. Denardhas stagedthree coups on this dirt-poor chain of islands, which he ruled through figurehead presidents from 1978 to 1989, when France nego- tiated his departure.. Yesterday's intervention seemed to mark an end to French tolerance for the buccaneer who has claimed to have served French interests around Africa. By sending in its forces, France also has reasserted its policeman's role in a former colony - but with a notable difference. During the Cold War, France often gave more than tacit support to coups against African leaders who tilted to- ward Moscow. This time, France sided with the constitutional government, even though Paris may have had doubts about its policies toward the French. Behind the new policy is a recogni- AP PHOTO A forward reconnaissance patrol of French marines stops a taxi on the road to Moroni, the capital of the Comoros Islands. had given up and freed President Said Mohamed Djohar, held captive since last Thursday's coup. But ministry staff corrected Germanos and said the surrender had not been confirmed. They did confirm Djohar had been taken to the French Embassy after his release. Denard nonetheless seemed beaten in the latest of a string of coups in his three-decade career as Africa's most notorious mercenary, with France's 600 elite troops - armed with bazookas and machine guns - cornering him in the Comoros military headquarters. French soldiers closed roads in the capital, and a showdown was possible between the French commandos and several hundred Comorian troops in- side the military compound under the mercenaries' command. At least three people died and 11 were iniured in the French dawn assault that secured the Hahaya airport 12 miles north of Moroni, the capital, and gained the troops a key foothold near the cen- tral harbor and embassy. The dead included two Comorian soldiers shot to death and a motorcycle driver killed by gunfire while trans- porting a French news photographer. "If I disarm my men, they'll be dead," Denard, 66, said earlier yesterday. "I don't want to have a bloodbath on my conscience. We will negotiate." Germanos said French President Jacques Chirac made the decision to intervene late Friday, a few hours after his government said it would not do so. French officials declined to say what prompted the change. The assault began with about 40 com- mandos swarming ashore on inflatable speedboats and battling with 30 Comorian soldiers and four French A suspected foreign mercenary (far right) is ferried across the Maroni harbor towprd a freighter believed to be the mercenaries' base. tion that Africa is no longer a bone of contention in the East-West battle for influence in developing countries. Despite the morning fighting yester- day, much of Moroni appeared calm. People gathered in the streets, unafraid of gunfire spreading beyond the airport and harbor area. In 1978, Denard placed Ahmed Abdallah Abderrahmane in the presi- dency and commanded the presidential guard. Abdallah was shot in 1989 under mysterious circumstances that led to France forcing Denard to leave the is- lands. Denard had been living quietly in France since 1993, when he was given a five-year suspended sentence for try- ing to overthrow the Marxist govern- ment of Benin in 1977. He remains under a death sentence in Benin. NATO planes strike.Serb radar; talks continue SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Bosnian Serbs swept NATO warplanes with radar and got a swift response yesterday as NATO warplanes fired missiles at three Bosnian Serb radar sites. The airstrikes came as the United States was trying to maintain momen- tum for a Bosnian peace plan just as the efforts appeared to be paying off. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke reportedprogress in his quest for a cease-fire. A NATO spokesman in Naples, Italy, said two missiles were fired yesterday morning, one each at sites in southern and central Bosnia. The spokesman, Franco Veltri, said athird missilewas fired in the afternoon at a site in central Bosnia. NATO still didn't know late yester- day whether the missiles hit their tar- gets or how much damage they might Study :113 black youths serves sentence WASHINGTON (AP) - Almost one in every three young black men is serving a criminal sentence - either prison, probation or parole, according to a study by an advocacy group. That's a dramatic increase from five years earlier, when the proportion was one in four. The statistics released yesterday are: sure to fuel arguments about whether blacks are treated fairly by the crimi- nal justice system -a theme that per- meated the O.J. Simpson trial. It also is an issue cited by organizers of a na- tional black men's march for unity and atonement. "If this were basically white youth in this dilemma or sentenced at this level, we would assume something is wrong with the system, not something wrong with the children," said civil rights ac- tivist Jesse Jackson. The report was released by The Sen- tencing Project, a non-profit research and prison watchdog group that advo- cates alternatives to prison sentences and offers technical assistance to pub- lic defenders, bar associations and judges. Its report, funded by grants from the Drug Policy Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and the Public Welfare Foundation, argues that the mandatory minimum sentences and stepped up enforcement that began with the 1980s "war on drugs" have fallen have done, Veltri said. He provided no other details of the targets. Veltri said the pilots acted in self- defense after anti-aircraft radar locked onto their planes. "That constituted an immediate threat against the aircraft," he said. When anti-aircraft tadar locks onto a plane, it is considered prepara- tion for a potential attack. It was the first NATO attack on Serb targets since Sept. 20, when the alliance halted two weeks of airstrikes because Serbrebelsagreedtowithdrawtheirheavi- est guns from around besieged Sarajevo. The strikes came as Holbrooke re- ported progress in his effort to broker a cease-fire. After meeting officials in Sarajevo, Holbrooke spoke of a "seri- ous proposal" by the government but he didn't give details. In Washington, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns called the development "encouraging" but said the United States is concerned about continued fighting. He cited a Bosnian Serb counter- offensive in the Bihac region in north- west Bosnia and the continuation of Bosnian and Croatian offensives in western Bosnia. Burns also criticized the Bosnian government for firing four missiles at Serbs from within the weapons-exclu- sion zone around Sarajevo. "This was highly counter-productive. And we have called upon all parties, including the Bosnian government, to refrain from military activities that could jeopardize the peace process,"Burns said. Holbrooke was due toholdmore talks today with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, the regional powerbroker in the Balkans and chief negotiator for Bosnia's rebel Serbs. In recent weeks, Holbrooke has suc- ceeded in getting the warring sides to agree to a territorial division of Bosnia and to share power in a postwar gov- ernment. Mirko Pejanovic, a member of Bosnia's collective presidency, said a cease-fire can be expected soon. Jadranko Prlic, the vice premier of the Bosnian government, went even fur- ther, predicting an end to the war. Aleksa Buha, foreign minister in the Serbs' self-declared state, told the Bosnian Serb news agency that a cease- fire "could be signed on Oct. 20 in Washington." Moscow said it would keep up diplo- matic pressure. After meeting with Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev pledged an "extra ef- fort" to obtain a cease-fire. FOR JUNIOR NURSING STUDENTS A NURSING EXPERIENCE AT MAYO FOUNDATION HOSPITALS - ROCHESTER, MN Here is your opportunity to work at Mayo Medical Center for the summer. Summer III is a paid, supervised hospital work experience at Saint Marys Hospital and Rochester Methodist Hospital, both part of Mayo Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota. You are eligible for Summer III after your junior year of a four year baccalaureate nursing program. It includes experience on medical and surgical nursing units or in operating rooms. Application Deadline: December 1,1995. For more information contact. 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