Half of S Leone team missing

2006-03-24 08:09

Melbourne - War-ravaged Sierra Leone has now lost half of its Commonwealth Games squad after another four of its athletes disappeared, reports said on Friday.

Boxers Gibrilla Kanu and Alie Kargbo and two cyclists, believed to be Alhassan Bangura and Mohamed Sesay, became the latest to go missing.

Seven vanished on Wednesday - a weightlifter and six members of the athletics team.

That takes the total to 11 missing from a delegation of 22.

Sierra Leone is one of the world's poorest and most corrupt countries and 21 of its team of 30 went missing at the last Games in Manchester four years ago. Their fate remains unknown.

Sierra Leone team official Andre Hope said it was hoped the absence of Kanu and Kargbo was innocent and that they would return.

"The athletes and the boxers aren't in the same category," he told The Age newspaper.

"The boxers mentioned that they were going to go visit some friends ... (our chef de mission) wants to give them the benefit of the doubt."

Team attache Robert Green said the African nation's team has formally notified police that the cyclists and boxers were last seen on Thursday morning and revealed that some had indicated they wanted to remain in Australia.

"Their coach phoned them and said: 'Hey guys, what's going on?' and they said: 'Look, we don't want to come back. We're going to try and stay in this country'," he was quoted as saying by ABC radio.

"The other team members are very disappointed."

Athletes disappear

It brings to 13 the number of athletes to disappear in Melbourne.

Earlier this week, Bangladesh 400m runner Tawhidul Mohammad Islam and Tanzanian boxer Omari Idd Kimweri vanished and have not been seen since.

They have visas until April 26 and will not be considered illegal aliens until then, police have said.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the circumstances of athletes who applied for asylum would be assessed individually.

"We don't give blanket asylum to people who leave sporting teams visiting the country unless they have some bona fide reason, but it would have to be a bona fide reason," he said.

"I don't want any other athletes who might be thinking along those lines to imagine they will stay behind, it doesn't work that way."

Victoria state police commissioner Christine Nixon said a number of leads were being followed in the hunt for the athletes, but said the main consideration was for their safety.

"I can't confirm at this stage the other two Sierra Leone athletes, we are currently in discussions with the team," she said.

"The most important part is their welfare and that is what we are trying to establish. We are hoping they will contact us to say they are ok."

- AFP