25 Held Over Bissau 'Coup Plot', Weapons Cache Seized

BISSAU (NNN-ANGOP): Twenty-five renegade soldiers involved in an apparent coup plot in Guinea-Bissau are being detained in the capital and at an air base north of Bissau, after the army uncovered a large cache of weapons.

The arms were seized at the homes of two soldiers arrested for taking part in Monday's attack on army headquarters which the regime has described as a coup bid.

Army chief General Antonio Indjai said he was "staggered" by the quantity of arms found during search operations in the northern suburb of Plack 1, at the homes of the soldiers who admitted taking part in the attack.

The army seized 30 Kalachnikovs, three rocket-launchers, a machine-gun, six crates of shells, three crates of flamethrowers, eight bulletproof jackets and ammunition in searches witnessed by AFP.

"I am surprised to see so many weapons which would have been used to destroy our country... I call on government to build secure armories to avoid having thousands of arms circulating outside of appropriate channels of control," Indjai told journalists.

On Monday, Indjai announced that a coup attempt by a group of renegade soldiers had been foiled.

The army said it had arrested controversial navy chief Rear Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto -- whom the United States has branded a drug kingpin -- as the "mastermind" of the plot.

Some observers put the mutiny down to a falling out between Indjai and Bubo Na Tchuto who was among 25 detainees paraded before journalists on Thursday.

Bubo Na Tchuto is being detained in Mansoa, 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of the capital, and the 24 others in four cells at a Bissau air base.

Another officer, General Watna Na Lai, was wounded and remains in hospital.

Bubo Na Tchuto told visiting journalists, human rights activists and NGOs he was "in good spirits".

But he criticised the conditions of his detention in a 20-square-metre (215-square-feet) office at the Mansoa garrison that had been turned into a cell. --NNN-ANGOP