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Comoros SEYCHELLES
Security Concerns
Seychelles confronts no external security threat.
However,
during the Cold War, Seychelles faced several threats from
foreign powers interested in the country's strategic
position
astride the Indian Ocean's oil-tanker lanes. In
particular,
President France Albert René feared South African
aggression. On
at least two occasions, he accused South Africa of trying
to
overthrow his regime. Both incidents involved Colonel "Mad
Mike"
Hoare, a mercenary who allegedly had been acting on behalf
of the
South African government. The first coup attempt occurred
in
November 1979, when René announced that he had foiled a
plot
"sponsored from abroad with the cooperation of mercenaries
standing ready in Durban." The authorities arrested but
later
released eighty coup plotters. Although a South African
connection could not be ruled out, some Western observers
believed the affair was French-inspired.
The second, more serious coup attempt occurred on
November
25, 1981, when a group of forty-five European mercenaries,
led by
Colonel Hoare, arrived at Mahé International Airport on a
commercial flight from Swaziland to overthrow the René
regime.
The Seychellois authorities quickly thwarted the coup
attempt,
known as Operation Anvil, and the mercenaries hijacked an
Air
India plane and forced the captain to fly them to Durban,
South
Africa. As soon as the aircraft arrived, the South African
police
arrested all the mercenaries. Several of the mercenaries,
including Colonel Hoare, served time in jail for their
involvement in Operation Anvil. On May 7, 1985, Colonel
Hoare
gained his freedom as a result of a general presidential
pardon.
In the aftermath of Operation Anvil, there were
indications
that Pretoria and Victoria, the capital of Seychelles, had
concluded a secret agreement. In exchange for the release
of
South African prisoners in Seychelles, the South African
government promised to refrain from future actions against
the
René regime, help guarantee Seychellois security, and
provide an
indemnity payment to Seychelles. In July 1992, Pretoria
announced
that it would pay Victoria about 8 million rand in
compensation
for Operation Anvil. Since then, Seychellois-South African
relations have improved to the point that, on November 8,
1993,
the two countries established diplomatic relations at the
ambassadorial level.
In 1986 another coup attempt against the René regime
occurred, supposedly involving the United States, France,
and
Britain. In addition to this foreign connection, the plot,
known
as Operation Distant Lash, included thirty mercenaries and
some
350 partisans in Seychelles. The figurehead of this coup
attempt
was Minister of Defense Ogilvy Berlouis who reportedly was
groomed to be the country's new pro-Western president. The
security forces uncovered the conspiracy before the
plotters
could act and subsequently arrested Berlouis. Also, the
government forced several Seychelles People's Liberation
Army
(SPLA) officers to resign.
In July 1987, British police uncovered yet another plot
to
overthrow the René regime and to abduct leading members of
the
South African opposition movement, the African National
Congress
(ANC), who were based in London. The authorities
eventually
arrested four men and charged them with conspiracy to
kidnap the
ANC members; the charges were later withdrawn because of
insufficient evidence.
Since independence numerous internal threats against
the
Seychellois government have arisen. After overthrowing
James
Mancham's regime on June 5, 1977, René quickly established
a
socialist one-party state, censored the rival newspaper,
and
abolished religious fee-paying schools. Additionally, René
created an army and a large security apparatus for the
first time
in the country's history. Such controversial policies
caused
considerable popular resentment against the René regime.
Resentment caused thousands of Seychellois to go into
exile
and to organize an array of opposition groups seeking to
overthrow René. In April 1978, some of James Mancham's
followers
unsuccessfully tried to overthrow the government when René
was on
a state visit to North Korea and the PRC. The Movement for
Resistance (Mouvement pour la Résistance), which sought to
restore democracy in Seychelles, indicated that about 100
of its
members had financed the November 1981 coup attempt. The
Seychelles Liberation Committee, established in 1979 by
exiles in
Paris, also wanted to remove René and abolish his
one-party
state. The Seychelles National Movement maintained that it
was a
broad-based opposition group with followers in Seychelles,
Britain, and Australia. The Seychelles Popular
Anti-Marxist Front
(SPAMF) declared that it had unsuccessfully tried to
persuade the
South African government to support a SPAMF coup attempt
against
René. Most Western observers believed that,
notwithstanding the
November 1981 coup attempt, these exile organizations had
little
chance of effecting a change of government in Seychelles,
largely
because they had few supporters in the country and minimal
resources. With the end of the Cold War and the emergence
of
multiparty politics in Seychelles, the external and
internal
threats against the René regime have dissipated.
Data as of August 1994
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