This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the army mutiny of 1982. President Michel and the SPPF would rather forget this event. For this reason, do not expect a programme on SBC on Sunday night to commemorate the occasion.
The mutiny involved 300 soldiers based at the Union Vale army camp. The camp itself was created on 15 November 1979 out of the former Union Vale Prison. However, instead of the soldiers moving in on that date, the cells were emptied to accommodate 100 political detainees who were to be detained without charge or trial over a period of a year on the orders of President Albert Rene. The detainees included DP leader
On that day, the mutineers commanded the radio station and introduced the first live radio phone-in broadcast. Many called in to praise them and to criticise the one-party state. However, the mutiny was soon crushed by a reinforcement of Tanzanian troops flown in from
On this page, we have reproduced a report from an international news agency, which gives a world perspective of the event that traumatised the population of
The picture below shows Marxist dictator Rene, with cigar in his mouth a la Fidel Castro-style, touring Radio Seychelles building, surrounded by his sycophants, after he had ordered Tanzanian soldiers to shoot an kill his own people.
The Seychelles announced Saturday that eight persons, including six soldiers and two civilians, were killed in a 36- hour army coup attempt on the Indian Ocean island nation last week.
Seven persons, including two civilians, were killed Tuesday in heavy fighting in the initial stages of the rebellion by junior officers, crushed by loyal troops and Tanzanian soldiers stationed on the island. The eighth victim, a government soldier, died Saturday of wounds that he suffered in the fighting.
A defence force communiqué, carried by the official Seychelles Agence-Presse, said four of those killed were mutineers, two were civilians and one was a loyal soldier.
The communiqué said that 23 were wounded during the mutiny against senior military officers and included loyal soldiers, rebels and civilians.
Disgruntled soldiers launched the mutiny early Tuesday at the Union Vale army camp near
Loyal forces crushed the rebellion Wednesday afternoon, retaking the government radio station and the other installations and releasing about 30 hostages the mutineers held at the seafront building of Radio
The socialist government of President France Albert Rene has not yet released figures on the number of soldiers who took part in the mutiny or those captured or still at large. The rebels were demanding that some senior army officers be replaced.
However, unofficial sources estimated that 40 mutineers have been captured and 19 others still are on the run in the hills behind
An around-the-clock curfew in this 92-island group, about 1,000 miles off the east coast of