Mali's isolated junta seeks to assert hold on power

BAMAKO (AFP) - Mali's coup leaders, frozen out by the international community, sought to assert their tenuous hold on power on Saturday amid rumours of a loyalist backlash.

The junta appeared on state television at regular intervals, assuring they were in control, and coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo himself made an appearance after rumours of his death Friday night.

"I am Captain Sanogo and I am in good health, all is well," he said.

He assured he had the backing of all of the armed forces, which remained in doubt, asking the camera to pan over representatives of the police, paratroopers, air force and paramilitary police - all low-ranking officers.

A prominent member of a leading opposition party was briefly arrested by soldiers at his home early Saturday after he criticised the coup plotters who seized control of the west African nation early on Thursday morning.

The shock coup by a group of low-ranking soldiers prompted swift international condemnation. The African Union temporarily suspended Mali, Europe froze aid and the United States has threatened to follow suit.

A joint mission from the African Union and Economic Community of West African States met with representatives of the junta on Friday, according to Malian state television.

The envoys spoke to Sanogo by phone however as he did not want to leave his barracks, an African diplomat based in Bamako told AFP. No further details on the talks were available.

In the capital, few people ventured outside and there were complaints of cash machines running low on money and petrol shortages as trucks backed up at the borders which have been closed since the coup, an AFP reporter said.

Sporadic looting by soldiers continued.

A soldier from the junta, which calls itself the National Committee for the Re-Establishment of Democracy and Restoration of the State, gave a statement urging "petrol station owners to re-open their establishments."

They assured security against looters and "apologised for any disagreements."

Early on Saturday morning a group of soldiers arrested Kassoum Tapo, a member of the Democratic Alliance of Mali which has 54 of the 147 seats in parliament who spoke out against the coup on French international radio RFI.

He was released shortly afterwards. However three other Malian politicians, requesting anonymity, said they had gone underground, fearing they were being sought by armed men.

"I am in hiding. They are looking for me. We are not going to let the soldiers arrest everyone and make off with our country," one of them told AFP.

Several political parties planned to create a "refusal front" against the coup leaders.

The soldiers say their takeover was sparked by government's inability to deal with a Tuareg-led insurrection in the north, which has overwhelmed the military who claim they are ill-equipped to fight the desert nomads.

The problem at the moment was "a lack of equipment, a lack of training and our comrades are dying all the time," Sanogo told the BBC.

"So once this has been fixed, I'll be able to say 'OK, go for election' in a short period of time. I promise."

A presidential election in which President Amadou Toumani Toure was to step down after two terms had been scheduled for April 29.

Toure, who led his own coup in 1991, has not spoken publicly since being ousted but was believed to be safe and held in an unknown location.

Sanogo has said all arrested government officials are "safe and sound" and promised the African Union the safe return of top foreign officials who were stranded in Bamako after the coup.

The coup opened the way for Tuareg rebels to deepen their hold on the north, with their National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) saying it had seized the town of Anefis between the key cities Gao and Kidal.

MNLA spokesman Hama Ag Sid Ahmed said the coup "will worsen the security situation and drag Mali into inextricable crises and conflicts," in an interview to the Algerian daily Echorouk.

The Tuareg force has been strengthened by the return of heavily armed fighters who previously fought for Libya's slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Mali was usually seen as politically stable, but unrest in the north, where Tuareg tribes have long felt ignored by a southern government and where Al-Qaeda has also taken root, has created a major security problem.