'SA president tipped us off'

2004-03-10 14:09

Malabo - Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has thanked South Africa and Angola for being "friendly" countries and tipping him off to the impending arrival of a flight carrying susepcted mercenaries.

"We spoke with the South African president who warned us that a group of mercenaries was heading towards Equatorial Guinea... Angola also sent messages to tell us to be vigilant. That's what I expect of friendly countries," said Obiang, calling on former colonial power Spain to behave likewise.

Meanwhile, the planeload of alleged soldiers of fortune detained in Zimbabwe has been linked to a group of 15 suspected mercenaries arrested in Equatorial Guinea as they allegedly hatched a coup plot last weekend, national radio quoted Obiang saying.

"A group of mercenaries entered the country and was studying plans to carry out a coup d'état in Equatorial Guinea," said Obiang late on Tuesday, announcing the 15 coup plotters had been arrested.

They were found to be in possession of maps of the capital Malabo, and satellite telephones, Obiang said, adding they were linked to the planeload of suspected mercenaries who have been detained since the weekend in Zimbabwe.

The authorities in Harare at the weekend impounded a US-registered Boeing 727-100 with 64 passengers and three crew on board.

Although Harare claims those on board the impounded plane are mercenaries, and is holding them in prison, a British company that said it was operating the flight maintained that those on board were on their way to work in the mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Obiang said the suspected putschists "were funded by enemy powers, by multi-national companies and also by countries that do not like us," but did not name names.

He pointed the finger at opposition activist Severo Moto, who is in exile in Spain, and who tried to mount a coup against Obiang in 1997 from Angola.

Moto, who recently set up a government in exile for the tiny, oil-rich Gulf of Guinea country, was sentenced in absentia by a court in Malabo to 100 years in jail for his role in the 1997 coup bid, and his Party for Progress in Equatorial Guinea was banned.

The long-time president of Equatorial Guinea himself came to power in a coup in 1979, in which he ousted his uncle, whom he later had executed.

- AFP