Officials of political party freed in Ivory Coast ABIDJAN, July 14 (AFP) - Officials of a key Ivory Coast political party, the Rally of Republicans (RDR), were freed by police Friday after being held in connection with an army mutiny this month, an RDR spokesman said. Those released in the morning were Amadou Gon Coulibaly, RDR deputy secretary general, party spokesman Aly Coulibaly and Coulibaly Sangafoa, party representative in the northern town of Korhogo. It was not immediately known if there were any charges brought or conditions surrounding the release. The officials were arrested on Wednesday as part of the investigation into the July 4-5 mutiny. A fourth member of the RDR, Mamadou Coulibaly, Gon Coulibaly's uncle, was detained for a shorter time. Junta leader General Robert Guei said the mutiny was an attempted coup, and accused politicians of manipulating the soldiers, but without mentioning any names. Relations between the RDR and the junta headed by General Robert Guei have turned full circle since the December 24 coup. At the time many saw Alassane Ouattara, a former prime minister, as the main beneficiary of the coup, as the tension caused by a campaign waged against him by ousted president Henri Konan Bedie was one of the motors behind the coup. Ouattara had returned to Ivory Coast to challenge Bedie in elections after holding a top job at the International Monetary Fund. After the coup, bickering in the transitional government led Guei to expel the RDR, accusing its members of insubordination and since then relations have gone from bad to worse. The new constitution to be voted on in a referendum July 23 includes a clause on the nationality credentials of a presidential candidate which could bar Ouattara from running for the top job. Some observers have said that Guei's own political ambitions may be behind his attempts to exclude Ouattara's party, since Ouattara is one of the strongest potential candidates. Sidi Sanneh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------