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ZAMBIA QUASHES COUP
a military coup. Forces loyal to the Zambian president quashed the coup attempt by disgruntled military officers soon after it started today, arresting nine men including the captain who said an angel told him to overthrow the government.
A dawn radio broadcast proclaimed that a military council had deposed President Chiluba. Soon after, gunfire erupted around the broadcast center in Lusaka, the capital, and near State House, Chiluba's residence.
Lusaka residents rushed out to stock up on food and supplies, but about four hours later, Chiluba went on the radio to say he was in control of the country.
"I want to warn those who rise by the sword they will fall by the sword," Chiluba said in a brief broadcast. "I appeal to you fellow Zambians to unite and be resolute. We can1t go back to the Dark Ages."
There were unconfirmed reports of casualties among rebel soldiers and government forces, but Chiluba's press secretary, Richard Sakala, said he was unaware of any injuries.
"It was a very unlikely event as you can see. It was confined to a small group of people," Sakala said. Chiluba, he added, was inside State House throughout the coup attempt.
At least nine rebellious soldiers and officers were arrested by midday.
Zambian state radio said those arrested included Capt. Stephen Lungu, who made the coup broadcast identifying himself as Capt. Solo.
"Capt. Solo" said that the National Redemption Council, a previously unknown group, had ousted Chiluba in a campaign called Operation Born Again.
"I saw an angel and the message was the government had to be overthrown," he said in his broadcast.
Chiluba would be killed on sight if he failed to surrender and all senior military and police officers had been fired, he said in the message repeated several times.
State radio said Lungu hid in a freight container when loyalist soldiers stormed the station. He and eight others were brought out, stripped to their waists and with their hands tied behind their backs, workers at the station said.
Before government troops took back the station, Lungu told the British Broadcasting Corp. that "Zambia was going to ruin."
"It was corrupting completely, and there is only one institution, one organized institution, which can put an end to such a criminal activity and that is the military," he said.
In his radio address, the president thanked loyal military forces for backing his "legal and democratically elected government."
Chiluba defeated longtime leader Kenneth Kaunda in the nation1s first multiparty election in 1991, then won re-election in 1996 despite complaints of corruption and inefficiency.
After the coup bid failed, life quickly returned to normal in Lusaka. Government troops drove through the downtown streets singing victory songs, then took up positions at strategic buildings and intersections.
Zambia enjoyed initial prosperity from independence in 1964 until Kaunda1s socialist-style economic policies and a fall in copper prices, one of its major minerals, devastated the economy.
includes reporting by Associated Press.
