ALL 108 ON HIJACKED JET ARE FREED IN ETHIOPIA

The hijackers of a Somali airliner seized on Saturday released their 108 hostages unharmed today and were given the choice of political asylum or safe passage to a country of their choice by Ethiopia. The hijackers, led by a Somali military officer, had been threatening to blow up the plane and kill the people on board, including one American, identified today as Lieut. James Dell, 30 years old, of Orangeburg, N.Y., if their demands for the release of 21 political prisoners in Somalia were not met. Seven of those prisoners are students who, the hijackers said, were to have been executed in Somalia the day after the hijacking.

The hijackers told reporters today that they had agreed to free their hostages after being told that the Italian Government, which has been acting as an intermediary, had received assurances from Somalia that the seven students would not be executed. There has been no public statement to that effect from the Somali authorities. The freed hostages moved slowly and stiffly down the stairs to the runway and to a waiting bus. Most appeared dazed and bewildered, and several shielded their eyes against the bright morning light.

Lieutenant Dell, identified as a naval engineer working on port construction in Berbera, Somalia, said he was ''feeling a lot better'' now. He said the hijackers ''treated us very well.'' The three hijackers met with reporters in a lounge at the airport and defended their action. ''We are not terrorists,'' the leader of the hijackers, Capt. Awil Adan Bourhan, who was wearing a still fresh-looking khaki uniform and green beret, said several times. ''Just, we are trying to save our brothers.'' Another of the hijackers added: ''We had no choice but to act as we have done. If the international community does not come to the aid of the struggling Somali masses, more actions will be forthcoming.''

Captain Bourhan and his two compatriots, identified as Bashe Muse Mohammed and Ahmed Haji Mohammed Adan, both wearing civilian clothes, appeared drawn and groggy as they read from a prepared statement and answered questions. A member of the Somali Airlines crew said later that none of the hijackers had slept at all in the last three days and nights. The hijackers stressed that they had not wanted to kill anyone and that they had spared the lives of 20 Somali Government officials who were aboard.

The hijackers said they had ''already succeeded'' because Somalia had guaranteed the safety of the students. ''It is an international guarantee,'' one said. But he said the Somali President, Mohammed Siad Barre, had ''refused to give freedom'' to any of the political prisoners, including a former Somali Vice President, five former Cabinet members and two army colonels. Passengers Describe Hijacking

After the passengers and crew left the blue and white Boeing 707, which was guarded by armored vehicles and more than two dozen Ethiopian paratroopers, they described the hijacking, which occurred Saturday morning on a flight from Mogadishu to Jidda, Saudi Arabia. According to the accounts of several passengers and crew members, Captain Bourhan rose calmly from his seat and walked toward the cockpit carrying a briefcase from which he took a pistol. He then approached the cockpit door. ''I tried to stop him,'' said Suad Mohammed, 26 years old, who was the chief flight attendant. ''I grabbed him. But he was too heavy, too strong.''

A man in the crew also struggled with Captain Bourhan and was shot in the hip. A second shot was fired to force the pilot to open the door. The pilot, too, struggled briefly with Captain Bourhan and the two other hijackers, who had joined him, but he was beaten and quickly overcome. The wounded crew member, the slightly injured pilot and the co-pilot, who had fallen ill, were released on Saturday, as were 19 women and children.

Source: New York Times

3 SOMALI SOLDIERS SAID TO HIJACK A JET TO ETHIOPIA

A Somali jetliner carrying 130 people was hijacked Saturday by three armed Somali soldiers who beat the pilot and wounded a crew member in a midair shootout, Ethiopian officials said. After arriving at the airport here, the hijackers released 22 people, the Ethiopian press agency and Western diplomats said. Ethiopian officials said the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane unless Somali authorities released a number of political prisoners and canceled the execution of seven Somali youths who were convicted of anti-Government activities. The execution was scheduled for today.

Ethiopian officials said the hijackers, who seized the Boeing 707 on a flight from Mogadishu, the Somali capital, to Jidda, Saudi Arabia, had told them that they planned to blow up the plane at midnight Saturday. That deadline passed and the hijackers threatened early this morning to blow up the plane by noon if their demands were not met by then. One American on Board According to a senior Western diplomat, one American, whose identity was not known, was among the 118 passengers and 12 crew members on the plane when it was seized.

The official Mogadishu radio broadcast a statement early today saying that the Somali Government had discussed the issue with ''various embassies about this action of banditry and terrorism against the civilian passengers, since this terrorist action is in breach of international agreements covering civilians,'' The Associated Press said. It added that the statement did not say what the Somali Government would do about the hijackers' demands.

Pro-Western Somalia and pro-Soviet Ethiopia fought a war in 1977 over the disputed Ogaden region and relations between the two nations remain strained. Relief Pilots Hear Messages Pilots of Britain's Royal Air Force who were flying relief missions to Ethiopian famine victims learned of the hijacking Saturday morning when they picked up radio messages from the Somali plane. The Britons said they heard the pilot identify the hijackers as members of a Somali political resistance group. But the official Ethiopian press agency said the hijackers were three heavily armed Somali Army officers who had demanded that the execution of the seven youths in Somalia be called off and that international guarantees be given for the youths' safety. The agency said the hijackers were also demanding that a number of political prisoners in Somalia be released and sent to neighboring Djibouti, and that their arrival there be confirmed.

According to a British Broadcasting Corporation report, the hijackers freed 15 women and 4 children Saturday. Also freed, the BBC said, were three crew members - the wounded Somali crew member, who was assumed to have been a security guard, the injured captain, and the first officer, who was reported to have become ill. Food and other provisions were delivered to the passengers still on board Saturday. The Somali plane landed at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa after being refused permission to land in Aden, in Southern Yemen, the official Saudi press agency said.

Ethiopian officials negotiated with the hijackers throughout most of Saturday and early today. Late Saturday evening, spotlights illuminated the Somali aircraft, which was parked just off the main runway and was being guarded by armored vehicles. A delegation of eight United States Congressmen arrived at the airport here Saturday night as scheduled on a trip to assess famine relief efforts in various parts of the country.

Source: New York Times

Sandinistas claim election victory

Nicaragua's ruling Sandinista Front (FSLN) has claimed a decisive victory in the country's first elections since the revolution five years ago.

Within hours of the count beginning, the leader of the country's left-wing junta, Daniel Ortega, said he had gained nearly 70% of the vote in the presidential election. Mr Ortega said his party won a similar share of the vote in the parliamentary election. Mr Ortega said: "We can already say that the FSLN is the clear winner of these elections by an ample majority."

The Sandinistas' nearest rivals have so far polled just 11% of the vote but Nicaragua's leading right-wing parties boycotted the ballots. Turnout was high with an estimated 83% of the country's 1.5 million-strong electorate casting a vote. The Sandinistas have been at pains to convince the outside world, especially the US, that the elections were free and fair.

Approximately 400 independent foreign observers, including a number of Americans, were in Nicaragua to monitor proceedings. The unofficial British election observer, Lord Chitnis, said proceedings were not perfect but he had no doubt the elections were fair.

In 1979 the Sandinistas - named after an assassinated former leader of Nicaragua - ousted long-time dictator Anastasio Somoza. The Sandinistas have been at odds with the US ever since, especially since the superpower began assisting the party's main opponents, the Contras. The Contras, based in neighbouring Honduras, are engaged in a guerrilla war aimed at ousting the Sandinista Front.

Source: BBC

GANDHI, SLAIN, IS SUCCEEDED BY SON

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot and killed at her home Wednesday by two gunmen identified by police officials as Sikh members of her personal bodyguard. Mrs. Gandhi's only surviving son, Rajiv, was sworn in Wednesday night as her successor. Mrs. Gandhi was killed by at least eight bullets fired at close range from a submachine gun and a pistol by two men, according to police officials. One of the men was said to have been killed by other guards on the scene. The other was reported captured.

Last June Mrs. Gandhi tried to break the back of the terrorist movement by raiding the Sikhs' holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab. The Sikhs broke away from the Hindus around A.D. 1500 to form a separate religion based on a belief in one God and the rejection of the caste system. When Government troops attacked the Golden Temple this spring, the shrine was being used by the Sikh terrorists to launch a campaign of violence in the Punjab and as a fortress and headquarters. At least 600 people, including the terrorist leaders, died in the temple fight on June 5 and 6.

On Wednesday, the Hindu attacks on Sikhs began as word of the assassination spread. In scenes reminiscent of earlier sectarian violence, Sikhs were stopped at random on the streets and beaten, and sometimes their beards were set afire.

Mr. Gandhi became the sixth Prime Minister of India since it became independent in 1947. His succession perpetuated the rule that began with his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, the nation's first Prime Minister.

Source: New York Times

308 PEOLPLE KILLED AS INDIAN TROOPS TAKE SIKH TEMPLE

At least 308 people were killed Wednesday and today as the Indian Army attacked and occupied the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion in an attempt to end a terrorist campaign that has tormented India's Punjab state for nearly two years. Among those reported killed was Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the leader of the radical wing of the Sikh militant movement.

Forty-eight of the dead in the assault on the shrine, the Golden Temple complex in the northern city of Amritsar, were soldiers, according to Lieut. Gen. Ranjit Singh Dayal, commander of the army force in Punjab. He said the rest of the dead were Sikh militants who had been fighting the army with mortars, machine guns and antitank rockets. About 450 rebellious Sikhs and their supporters were reportedly captured inside the complex. At least 17 soldiers and Sikh militants were also killed as the army raided 43 other places of worship throughout Punjab. The shrines were said to have served as hideouts for Sikhs who have been carrying out a campaign of political murder. About 700 Sikhs were reportedly arrested in these raids. Eleven people were reported killed in Amritsar during clashes between security forces and crowds of Sikhs protesting the storming of the temple. Army Takes Control Late Wednesday night, a Government spokesman in Chandigarh, the Punjab capital, said the army and paramilitary forces had taken control of all buildings within the temple grounds and that active resistance had stopped. Mopping-up operations were proceeding, the spokesman said.

The storming of the temple could have political consequences for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Sikhs in the United States called the attack an act of ''tyranny.'' The Sikhs' Akali Dal party announced in New Delhi that it would start a ''protest program'' today against the army action. India's Home Secretary, W. K. Wali, said Wednesday night that the army suffered more casualties than it might have because it tried to avoid damaging the Golden Temple itself, which is called the Harmandir Sahib. This is a small, gold-covered structure in the middle of a sacred pool.

All-India Radio, which is state owned, and other Indian news organizations reported that the body of Mr. Bhindranwale, the leader of the extremist Sikh faction, had been found in the Golden Temple. Mr. Bhindranwale was a fundamentalist preacher. He had vowed many times that if troops invaded the temple, he and his followers would resist. Rebels in the Harmandir Sahib fired on the advancing troops with machine guns. About 20 rebellious Sikhs ultimately surrendered there, waving white flags as they emerged.

The last band of holdouts was said to have been in the basement of another building, the Akal Takht, that is part of the outer wall of the temple quadrangle. The Akal Takht is the headquarters of the Sikh religion, which is a five- century-old monotheistic outgrowth and synthesis of Hinduism and Islam that prizes political activism and martial prowess, as well as a sense of egalitarianism. Many Surrendered Many Sikhs inside the Golden Temple surrendered as a result of repeated appeals by loudspeaker to do so, Mr. Wali said. He said the army moved into the temple only as a last resort, after the militants brought heavy firepower against the army outside.

Harchand Singh Longowal, the leader of the moderate, nonviolent faction of the Sikh movement, left the Golden Temple Tuesday night along with his followers. Mr. Longowal is president of the Akali Dal, a Sikh political party that briefly held power in Punjab in the late 1970's. After being defeated by Prime Minister Gandhi's Congress-I Party in 1980, the Akali Dal undertook a nonviolent agitation on behalf of greater political autonomy for Punjab, whose population is predominantly Sikh, along with demands for certain religious and territorial concessions.

The Government and the Akali Dal have been close to agreement on the demands several times, only to have an accord sabotaged by a new eruption of violence. The Bhindranwale and Longowal factions have been increasingly estranged, and the Sikh militants have long since seized the initiative, for purposes not entirely clear. Mr. Longowal left the temple complex through a back door after army troops entered that way from the street. He was taken to what was described as a safe place. Whether he was under arrest was not known. He had been living in the temple complex for many months to avoid arrest. 'Break the Back of Movement' Mr. Wali, the Home Secretary, said Wednesday night, ''I believe that this will break the back of the terrorist movement.'' He said that although scattered acts of terrorism might still take place, the movement had essentially been brought under control. However, protests against the storming of the Golden Temple started in New Delhi and other places soon after the news was known. Young Sikh demonstrators attacked buses with rocks Wednesday evening and tried to set a bus on fire near New Delhi's largest Sikh temple, but the police chased them away. Mr. Wali said some protests were expected, but he predicted that the country at large, including most Sikhs, would applaud the action. ''This is something that no government can allow to continue,'' he said. ''There is a limit to restraint.''

More than 120 people had been killed in Punjab by terrorists in the two weeks preceding the raids Wednesday, and more than 570 since the Akali Dal started its agitation in August 1982. Even as the raids were under way, a few terrorist actions took place. Nine people were killed in five separate terrorist attacks, according to the Government, most of them in the Amritsar district. The militants' campaign, which seemed to have almost a random quality at first, has since been well-coordinated and organized. A recent piece of evidence was the simultaneous arson attacks on 39 railway stations throughout Punjab in mid-April.

Other evidence, provided Wednesday by Mr. Wali, included the weapons used by Sikhs in the Golden Temple. The antitank rockets, he said, were far more advanced than anything used by the paramilitary forces that had been trying to deal with the situation before the army was ordered in last Saturday. One army armored personnel carrier was reported disabled by the antitank rockets. Some Curfews Are Lifted After the raids Wednesday, authorities in some parts of Punjab decided to lift curfews that had been in effect since Sunday. Some curfews were briefly lifted Wednesday to allow families to buy food. There was no word on when a ban on travel to Punjab would be lifted, or when other normal activity might resume.

Punjab military authorities in Chandigarh said the troops who took part in the Punjab operation came from all Indian religions, including the Sikh religion. ''All of them carried out the operation in a most secular way,'' a general said. Of the six senior commanders who took part in the action, the general said, four were Sikhs.

In the early 19th century, the Sikhs established a Sikh state in the Punjab and fought both the Moslems and the British colonizers who sought to annex it. The British finally subdued the Sikhs in 1849, and the Sikhs later supplied many recruits for Britain's Indian Army. Eventually, however, most Sikhs supported the Indian independence movement led by Mohandas K. Ghandi. Amritsar has special meaning for Indians. In 1919, the British killed 400 Indians on a field not far from the Golden Temple. The incident is regarded by historians as a turning point in Indian- British relations that helped lead to India's independence.

Source: New York Times

COLONEL IS NAMED GUINEAN PRESIDENT

An army colonel, Col. Lansana Conte, 39 years old, pledged to reverse the ''harm'' done by President Ahmed Sekou Toure. In a broadcast interview, Colonel Conte denounced racism, which he said ''had been more accentuated'' in Guinea than elsewhere in Africa. He said the military would insure that all citizens ''have the same rights and the same responsibilities.'' Mr. Toure's Government had been dominated by members of his Malinke ethnic group.

Diplomats said the new Government appeared to be well balanced among the various tribes. Colonel Conte said the problem of human rights ''will be our principal problem because since our independence 26 years ago we have lived under a regime where there was no right of expression, where a person did not have the right to say what he wants.'' The new leadership has accused Mr. Toure of rights violations. In the 1960's and 70's, the Government arrested and imprisoned thousands of people. Many others disappeared or were executed.

A recent State Department report said the number of political prisoners had been ''considerably reduced over the past several years.'' ''The old regime died with President Ahmed Sekou Toure, whom we have praised for having led us to independence but that is all,'' the colonel said. ''Now that we have succeeded in taking his place, we are obliged to banish all the harm he has done.''

Throughout Conakry, portraits of Mr. Toure were being removed or defaced. In some places the image had been roughly scratched off or painted over and the slogan ''Down with corruption!'' scrawled nearby. Flags that had been at half-staff after Mr. Toure's death were raised. Hundreds of jubilant schoolchildren, led by adults, paraded through the streets, singing, beating drums and blowing whistles. Some automobiles bore handpainted signs reading, ''Long live the military! Long live the Republic of Guinea!'' Under the former Government, the title was the People's Revolutionary Republic of Guinea.

Several times during the day, Colonel Conte and other officials drove through the city in a motorcade, led by soldiers on motorcycles. Crowds cheered and waved as the motorcade passed. Asked why he was cheering, one Guinean replied, ''Because we have been liberated.'' There was no word on the fate of members of the ousted Government. On Wednesday a military spokesman said only that senior officials had been put ''under security.''

A radio announcement ordered any officials who had not yet reported to the new authorities to do so immediately. Several radio reports also said the coup had been accomplished ''with no bloodletting and without exchanges of gunfire.'' However, a communique issued today by the ruling Military Committee for National Rectification said that the new leadership ''is attentively following the movements of a small group of people who, in connivance with some foreign embassies in the capital, are planning to do harm.'' A well-placed official said the allusion was to the Moroccan Embassy. Moroccan leaders had close relations with Mr. Toure, members of his Government and family. Colonel Conte did not elaborate on the economic policy changes being contemplated. A communique issued Wednesday pledged to encourage free enterprise.

Source: New York Times

GUINEA'S MILITARY ASSUMES CONTROL; SEALS OFF NATION

The armed forces of Guinea said today that they had seized power in that West African nation a week after the death of President Ahmed Sekou Toure ended what they called a ''bloody and ruthless dictatorship.'' The armed forces did not say what had happened to Government officials and the 14 members of the ruling Political Bureau, who were to have met today to choose a successor to Mr. Toure. Mr. Toure, who died March 26 in the Cleveland Clinic while having heart surgery, was black Africa's longest-serving head of state. He had led his nation, one of the world's leading producers of bauxite, since independence from France in October 1958.

The military dissolved the ruling Guinean Democratic Party, Parliament and all mass organizations, suspended the constitution, imposed a curfew from 10 P.M. to 6 A.M., closed the airport and the country's borders, seized the radio and television stations and forbade communication with the rest of the world. A statement read by an unidentified military spokesman on the Conakry radio said the army had ''decided to take over the running of the country in order to lay the foundations of a true democracy, avoiding in the future any personal dictatorship.''

The statement said the coup took place ''without bloodshed, in complete calm and amid popular rejoicing.'' The spokesman also said a ''military redemption committee'' was running the country of 5.5 million people, and added: ''The Guinean people had not dried its tears, yet a tough struggle for the succession was under way amongst Sekou Toure's companions, whose hands are sullied with the blood of so many innocent people.''

Among Mr. Toure's closest associates was Prime Minister Louis Lansana Beavogui, 61 years old, a longtime friend and adviser, who had been expected to succeed him. The spokesman praised Mr. Toure's influence in Africa but said his domestic record was questionable. ''Under the feudal pressure of his family and dishonest companions of his early struggle, your hope for a more just and more equitable society disappeared, swept away by a bloody and ruthless dictatorship,'' he said. The radio said that the military had decided to free all political prisoners and that Guinea would respect all its international commitments.

Guineans were confined to their homes. ''There will be no work, no market and no traffic,'' the spokesman said, concluding, ''Long live the glorious people of Guinea.'' After a period in which Guinea turned to the Soviet Union for aid, Mr. Toure had in recent years increasingly emphasized that he was not tied to any bloc. The nation has exported its bauxite, the ore for aluminum, to both Western countries and the Soviet Union.

During Mr. Toure's rule, human rights organizations said thousands of Guineans were killed or jailed and almost a fifth of the population went into exile. Amnesty International has listed 2,900 people in Guinea who disappeared without a trace. Mr. Toure claimed to have thwarted more than a dozen coup attempts.

Source: New York Times

GUINEA'S PRESIDENT, SEKOU TOURE, DIES IN CLEVELAND CLINIC

Ahmed Sekou Toure, the President of Guinea for 26 years and a symbol of African independence and defiance, died Monday in a Cleveland heart clinic. He was 62 years old. A peasant's son who became a union leader before entering politics, Mr. Toure led his western African country to independence from France in 1958 and then served as its only President so far. Radio reports from Conakry, the capital, said the Guinean Prime Minister, 61-year-old Lansana Beavogui, had stepped in as ''acting President.'' But Western diplomats said they thought that Dr. Beavogui, who has been in fragile health, was unlikely to succeed Mr. Toure on a long-term basis.

Among those seen as likely contenders for power are Mamadi Keita, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and Isma"el Toure, Minister of Mines and Geology and younger brother of the late President. Covert, dissident and opposition groups are also known to exist within the country as well as in Paris, in Dakar, Senegal and here in Abidjan. But diplomats say they doubt whether these groups are either well organized or well equipped enough to assert themselves at this point.The Guinean leader dealt ruthlessly with opponents; thousands of people disappeared during purges in the 1970's, according to Amnesty International, the human rights organization. He attacked tribal, caste and religious loyalties in the largely Moslem country and nurtured a personality cult around himself.

It was estimated that 1.5 million or more Guineans, or about a third of the population, emigrated, mostly to nearby countries, during a period of iron rule and a declining economy. The People's Revolutionary Republic of Guinea, a former French colony in western Africa, was proclaimed an independent country on Oct. 2, 1958, four days after 95 percent of its voters decided in a referendum to leave the French Community. The leader of the Democratic Party of Guinea, Ahmed Sekou Toure, became President and his organization the only political party.

Guinea has an area of 94,926 square miles, about twice the size of New York State. According to a mid-1983 estimate, Guinea has a population of 5,430,000. Conakry, the capital, is a city of 525,000 inhabitants. Two-thirds of the population is Moslem, one-third animist. Besides French, eight African languages are taught in schools. Government The National Assembly, a one- chamber legislature, consists of 210 members elected for seven years, with all candidates nominated by the ruling Democratic Party. The President, who is also elected for seven years, appoints a Council of Ministers.

Guinea is one of the leading world producers of bauxite, which is exported to Western countries and to the Soviet Union. More than 80 percent of the people work in agriculture, where the cash crops are coffee, bananas, palm kernels, peanuts and pineapples.

The army, consisting of 8,500 men, is equipped with Soviet, Czechoslovak and Chinese weapons and armored cars. There is also a militia of 9,200 men. The navy, with 600 men, has a minesweeper and numerous coastal and other craft. The air force, with 800 men, is said to have 6 MIG-7 jet fighters, 2 MIG trainers, several transport planes and a few helicopters.

Source: New York Times

Somali Guerrillas Claim Some Advances

Somali guerrillas said today that they had killed 123 Government soldiers and wounded 231 in the last week in northwestern and central Somalia.

The rebels' radio station, broadcasting from Ethiopia and monitored in Nairobi, said the guerrillas had captured four villages in the northwest since the fighting began March 8 and suffered ''only light casualties.''

The guerrillas' said the fighting began after an army patrol killed eight villagers, touching off an uprising. The claims of the rebels, who are fighting to overthrow President Mohamed Siad Barre, could not be verified independently.

Source: New York Times