President of Mali Reportedly Seized by Soldiers

President Moussa Traore was arrested by soldiers from his own army amid widespread rioting and heavy gunfire in this West African capital, witnesses said today.

“The president has been arrested--it was soldiers who arrested him,” said one witness who declined to be named.

Another said he saw Traore taken early today in a heavily armed military convoy from Mali’s presidential palace toward a military air base.

Earlier, angry crowds took to the streets, burning roadblocks and screaming slogans against the president. Witnesses said the riots began near Bamako’s central prison, where about 30 political detainees were released Monday after government concessions to the pro-democracy movement.

Two hours after Traore left the palace, witnesses said there was still sporadic gunfire across the city and that large fires were raging in several quarters.

About the time Traore was taken away, all outward communications with the outside world were cut.

The riots followed three days of bloody clashes between demonstrators and security forces in which diplomats say at least 150 people were killed and a thousand injured.

Mali’s pro-democracy movement had pledged to stage daily marches demanding Traore’s resignation. Thousands of workers answered opposition calls for an indefinite nationwide strike that was aimed at bringing down the single-party government.

Traore had promised to consider multi-party reforms at a meeting that was to have begun Thursday. But he had said he would not resign.

Traore seized power in a military coup in 1968, eight years after the country gained independence from France. He installed himself as president in 1979.