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."