Exiled politicians accused of coup attempt

The Comoran authorities have arrested a former senior officer and blamed France-based exiled politicians for a bungled mercenary-led coup attempt in which five insurgents were killed, Information Minister Ali Toihil told IRIN on Thursday. Former colonel Hassim Said Haruna, who served under the regime of Mohamed Taki, was arrested on Wednesday. Media sources on the main island of Grande Camore told IRIN that former president Tadjidine Ben Said Massoundi, who was overthrown in 1999, was under house arrest. But Toihil said Massoundi had "volunteered" to answer police questions. The authorities have stressed there is no evidence of French government involvement in the coup plot, but documents found with the mercenaries allegedly point to a link between Haruna and Paris-based Comoran political exiles, Toihil said. The target of the group of 15-20 mainly European mercenaries was apparently Grande Comore. But, according to the minister, their boat hired out of the northern Madagascar island of Nosy Be, sprang a fuel leak. The crew was forced to land on Moheli, the smallest of the three Comoran islands. The raiders, looking for fuel and weapons, attacked the island's police and military base and took at least one person hostage. "Just to try and get the population's sympathy", the minister said, they claimed they were US soldiers taking part in an operation against Al-Qaeda cells. They allegedly accused Comoran President Assoumani Azzali, the military leader who overthrew Massoundi, of having links to Osama bin Laden. In the fighting, five mercenaries were killed and three captured. Two others escaped to the second island of Anjouan, where they were arrested. One Comoran soldier was reportedly wounded in the clashes. The mercenary invasion occurred just days before a crucial referendum to decide on a new federal constitution, that devolves power to the islands, and designed to end the secessionist conflicts on the Indian Ocean archipelago. The 23 December referendum is to be followed by two key polls over the next three months to elect the leaders of the three islands, and then the federal president. "These [exiled] politicians should have come back to the country and taken part in the elections instead of trying to invade," Toihil said. "They obviously fear these elections." As a symbol of the international support Comoros has won through its commitment to the constitutional process, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and ministers from Madagascar and Tanzania, arrived on Comoros on Thursday and expressed support for the government.