Revolving-Door Coup

The Sudan in midsummer is an oven of a land where temperatures soar to 120DEG day after day and tempers tend to get even hotter. Since he took power 26 months ago, Major General Jaafar Numeiry, 41, leader of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council, has faced eight attempted coups, most of them during the summer months. Last week members of the army elite that governs this equatorial nation of 15 million staged the most confusing hot-weather spectacular since it won independence from Britain 15 years ago. In the space of a few days, rebellious officers toppled the government, imprisoned Numeiry, were toppled themselves and, as happened in Morocco only a week earlier, were summarily executed.

The initial revolt was bloodless, but the countercoup was a running battle that littered the streets of Khartoum with dead and crowded its hospitals with wounded. Though the fighting was confined to the capital and to Omdurman across the Nile, the repercussions rippled far beyond the Sudan. The Soviets quickly supported the dissidents and were noticeably distressed by Numeiry's countercoup. Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi, the hotspur of the Arab world, barged into the internal problems of another nation for the second time in two weeks. He was more effective than he had been in Morocco, however. By forcing down a British jet and kidnaping two rebel leaders, he took much of the spunk out of the anti-Numeiry forces.

Mohammed and Marx. In Khartoum, the principal leader of the coup was Major Hashem al Atta, 35. Atta and two other Communist sympathizers had been booted off the ruling seven-officer Revolutionary Command Council by Numeiry last November, ostensibly for leaking state secrets. Atta, supported by the presidential guard and an armored division, skillfully directed the takeover of Numeiry's headquarters and Omdurman radio, which proclaimed that "democratic Sudan has been established." Atta named Lieut. Colonel Babakr al Nour, 37, to be president of a revolutionary council, and himself vice president.

The rebels, he said, wanted lower living costs, freedom for Communists and trade unionists, and autonomy for the non-Moslem rebels of southern Sudan, who have been in revolt ever since independence (TIME, March 1). Atta was reinforced not only by elements of the Sudan's 26,000-man army but also by the nation's Communist Party. With 6,000 active members and the support of 200,000 trade unionists, it is the biggest and most vigorous in the Arab world, largely by virtue of its skill at getting Marx and Mohammed to coexist (verses from the Koran are chanted in unison at party meetings). Though he is a leftist, Numeiry is an intense foe of the local Communists--partly because they oppose his plan to link the Sudan in a federation with Libya, Egypt and Syria, and partly because he is convinced that they want to undermine him. Communist Leader Abdel Khalek Mahgoub wisely kept out of sight last week as sympathetic army officers mounted their coup. But there were reports that he masterminded the coup from the Bulgarian embassy in Khartoum.

Abdel Khalek's brother, Major Mohammed Mahgoub Osman, however, was quite visible. Along with Nour and Major Farouk Osman Hamadallah, he was in London when the coup was staged. Alerted that it had succeeded, the three officers and their aides boarded a BOAC VC10 bound for Khartoum, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Khartoum airport was closed, but Atta announced that he would open it for the VC10.

One for the Road. The plane was moving into Libyan airspace and monitoring Malta air control when the trouble came. Captain Roy Bowyer heard Benghazi break in and order: "You must land at Benina Airport or we shall shoot you down." Some passengers said they saw a fighter buzzing the plane. With 109 passengers aboard, Bowyer was not inclined to take any chances. Nour agreed to give himself up. According to London Daily Telegraph Cor respondent Brian Silk, a fellow passenger, Hamadallah summoned the first-class steward and said: "Libya is a dry country under Gaddafi. We'd better have another whisky while we can."

When the plane landed in predawn darkness at Benina, it was met by two security men and a soldier. After a ten-minute conversation with his welcoming committee, Nour told the pilot that he was getting off. Asked Bowyer: "Are you leaving of your own free will?" "No," answered Nour. "We are being forced." He disappeared along with Major Hamadallah (for unknown reasons, Mahgoub was not removed from the plane).

Shades of Indonesia. Soon thereafter, troops loyal to Numeiry moved out of barracks, and rifle and cannon fire roared through Khartoum and Omdurman. The battle was short but intense; Numeiry later announced that as the countercoup began, 30 of his officers and men were captured and slaughtered by rebel soldiers. One U.S. Marine was wounded at the American-interests section of the Dutch embassy--the old American embassy before the Sudan severed relations following the 1967 Middle East war. From an embassy window, a U.S. diplomat saw the bodies of some 15 civilians sprawled near the presidential palace. Before Atta's forces lost the radio station, they broadcast a final message: "Hold on to revolutionary gains by the skin of your teeth." Then the radio fell silent. When it returned to the air, the first message was: "Numeiry is alive and well." Three hours later, a weeping Numeiry appeared on TV and radio. Into the streets of Khartoum for a celebration poured many of the people who earlier the same day had taken to the same streets in a similar demonstration for the rebels.

Numeiry moved swiftly once he had regained power. He telephoned Gaddafi to thank him for his help, and announced that "I am in complete control." He sent a similar message to

Egypt's President Anwar Sadat, who was probably considerably relieved that he would not have a Communist-oriented regime on his southern flank.

Then Numeiry set about the business of revenge. "Arrest every Communist," he told the Sudanese. "The Communists are traitors." Whether that order would lead to an Indonesian-style slaughter was uncertain; in any case, the government was taking care of its special enemies. Numeiry established four tribunals for speedy justice. Atta and three other rebel officers were shot the next morning; other executions followed. Nour and Hamadallah, who were delivered to Numeiry by Gaddafi's aides, may also die. Like Jordan's King Hussein (see following story), the Sudanese leader was using strong measures to consolidate his power. Like Hussein, he may be setting in motion forces that could prove difficult to control.

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