Mercenaries Seize Capital of Maldives in Bloody Raid

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Hundreds of foreign mercenaries seized the capital of the Maldives today, leaving at least 12 people dead and 100 wounded in clashes on the Indian Ocean island chain, government and diplomatic sources said.

The sources said India, the major power in southern Asia, had sent troops to rescue President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who was in hiding as heavy fighting continued in the capital of Male. The islands are 380 miles southwest of India.

Tamil Guerrillas Blamed

Sri Lankan intelligence sources said the attackers apparently were Sri Lankan Tamil separatist guerrillas hired by a Maldives businessman loyal to a former president living in exile in Singapore.

Ahmed Abdullah, the Maldives high commissioner to Sri Lanka, said Gayoom was safe and described the seizure of Male as a bid to overthrow the government by foreign mercenaries. He did not elaborate.

Gayoom is said to exercise tight control over his nation, exiling dissidents to outlying islands. His brother-in-law is the minister of national security.

It was not known if the attempted coup was motivated by ideological differences between Gayoom and the former president.

Maldives, a former British protectorate that gained independence in 1965, has a population of about 180,000 mostly Sunni Muslims and lies about 200 miles north of the strategic U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia.

In Washington, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the situation was unclear but that it appeared power “has remained in the hands of the existing government.”

Fitzwater said the situation “appears to be resolving itself. No intervention is planned (by the United States). No direct assistance.”

Gayoom Pleads for Help

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in an emergency Cabinet session, agreed to dispatch troops following a plea for help that Gayoom telephoned from hiding to Sri Lankan President Junius Jayewardene, sources said.

The takeover began at about 4:30 a.m. when an unknown number of men disembarked from at least one ship into speedboats that whisked them into Male, according to residents reached by telephone and intelligence sources.

The raiders linked up with about 300 comrades who were recruited in Sri Lanka for jobs in the Maldives as manual laborers and hotel employees and had entered the country over the last month, the sources said.