MVICTORIA, Seychelles -- Loyal Seychelles soldiers backed by Tanzanian troops quashed a two-day rebellion of army dissidents Wednesday, freeing hostages and recapturing vital installations without firing a shot.
A communique issued by the Seychelles Defense Force and broadcast over Radio Seychelles said the mutiny had been 'crushed' and appealed to residents of the Indian Ocean island group to remain calm.
The dissidents had demanded the firing of senior army officers whom they accused of treating them 'like pigs.' The rebels were mostly enlistees and junior officers.
The rebellion ended without gunfire during its final four hours, although an earlier assault on the radio station was beaten back by the rebels. The radio station was the last rebel stronghold captured by troops loyal to Socialist President Albert Rene.
It was the third attempt against Rene's government. In 1978, a coup plot was foiled and in November 1981 a South African-supported mercenary force led by Col. 'Mad Mike' Hoare was defeated in a coup bid.
At two hotels where rebels went on a drunken rampage, 70 British, French, Swiss, German and American vacationers said they were stripped and robbed at gunpoint of their jewelry, watches and money.
'They couldn't be reasoned with. They fired shots in the air and began calling us bastards. We were terrified,' said Max Gogeel from Switzerland at the Fisherman's Cove Hotel in Victoria.
'They lined us up, stripped us, ripped chains and watches from our bodies. They were armed to the teeth. They took money and tried to shoot their way into the hotel safe. Then they told us to gather our wives and children and walk out to the beach where they would kill us.'
The Defense Force said all hostages held at the radio station had been freed unharmed. The rebels claimed to have 239 hostages, all Seychelles citizens, but diplomats on the island said the figure was probably closer to 20.
The communique said the rebels had been routed and asked residents to report sightings of any rebels still on the run.
In addition to recapturing the radio station, loyal troops also retook the Union Vale army camp where the mutiny started, the nation's telegraph office, the new port area and oil storage tanks and the central police station without violence.
The rebels had threatened to blow up those installations if their demands were not met.
The communique announcing the end of the rebellion made no mention of casualties, but diplomats said both sides had suffered some in the initial fighting which broke out early Tuesday.
Shortly before the rebels surrendered at the radio station and relinquished their hostages, they accused the Tanzanians of indiscriminately killing civilians and of terrorizing the population.
There are an estimated 175 Tanzanian troops on the Seychelles, sent there by Tanzania's Socialist President Julius Nyerere to bolster the Rene government. The Seychelles army consists of 650 to 800 men and there are another 450 men and women serving in the police force.
The communique extended the 24-hour curfew imposed when the rebels took over. It said mopping up operations were continuning and many rebels had been arrested.
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