Gunmen Reportedly Capture Maldives President in Coup

Gunmen today stormed the presidential palace in Male, capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago republic of Maldives, according to reports reaching Sri Lanka. The president was reported captured.

United News of India said President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, 50, who has been president since 1978 and was reelected to a third five-year term in September, was seized along with two of his senior Cabinet ministers.

The news agency attributed its report to Maldivian residents in Colombo who had been in touch with friends and relatives in Male.

A diplomat in Colombo, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the coup attempt, adding that the gunmen also attacked the headquarters of the National Security Forces and other government institutions. At the same time, a Western diplomat here said there was an unconfirmed report that some members of the president’s family also had been captured.

The Maldives, 300 miles southwest of India, consists of 1,200 low-lying coral islands, only 200 of which are inhabited by about 190,000 residents.

A senior Sri Lankan government official said a resident of the Maldives telephoned him from Male and gave him the news of Thursday’s attack.

Residents in the Maldives told Reuters news agency by telephone that up to 200 people may have been killed in the reported coup.

The United News of India reported that the attack involved about 20 men wearing military uniforms and speaking Tamil. That was an indication they were not Maldivians.

Tamil is the language of ethnic minority groups in Sri Lanka and India. The Maldivians, who are mostly Muslim, speak Divehi, which is akin to the Sinhalese language of Sri Lanka’s ethnic majority.

In London, the British Broadcasting Corp. said that its correspondent in Sri Lanka, who was able to contact Male by telephone, reported unidentified troops speaking Tamil had placed government leaders under arrest.

There was speculation that the troops could be members of the Tamil Tigers, a guerrilla group fighting for independence in Sri Lanka, an island nation off the southeast coast of India, the BBC correspondent said.

Gayoom was scheduled to visit New Delhi this week, but his trip was canceled late last week without explanation.

The Maldives was a British protectorate until independence in 1965. It became a republic three years later.