by Tidiane Sy QUINHAMEL, Guinea-Bissau, Nov 27 (AFP) - This sleepy little Guinea Bissau village was still in shock Monday after guns and uniforms flooded its streets and the army threatened to shell the place where the leader of last week's army mutiny was thought to be hiding. Quinhamel has been bristling with soldiers hunting rebel General Ansumane Mane, who declared himself head of the army but was forced to flee the capital Bissau, 40 kilometres (25 miles) away, when a bid openly to defy the elected president turned sour. "I haven't had a wink of sleep for the last five days," said the town's governor, Daniel Souleymane Embalo, whose house was surrounded by around 50 well-armed troops. "The inhabitants of Quinhamel are not used to seeing soldiers," the governor explained. "When one of them comes near the house, even if it's just to ask for a glass of water, the children run away." Clustered in front of their houses and in the streets, the locals were watching the "foreigners" who have taken over their town and who, on Saturday, threatened to shell it to shake out the hiding rebel leader, whose whereabouts have led to contradictory statements from Bissau authorities. Mane, a former military ruler, proclaimed himself army chief and "supreme commander" of a revived junta last Monday, but fled to Quinhamel, according to some sources in the armed forces, after loyalist forces overcame his men in fighting on Wednesday and Thursday that fighting 10 dead. While the whereabouts of the general remained uncertain, members of his family, including his wife, were brought back to Bissau from Quinhamel on Sunday. The renegade soldier ousted one head of state in May 1999 then ran a junta in parallel with a transitional adminstration until standing down last February in favour of elected President Kumba Yala - whose government this weekend denied that a witch-hunt was now on after several opposition figures were arrested. The government does, however, claim that Mane had been plotting a coup with the backing of several political figures after his failed bid last week to take back control of the army after objecting to military appointments made by Yala. Much of the small, impoverished country in tropical west Africa believes the general is hiding in the parish of Our Lady, probably under the protection of the church, where about 200 people normally attend mass each Sunday. But the smiling, bearded parish priest, George Falcao, was adamant: "If he was here, we would have handed him over to the authorities as we did with the others." At no point, Falcao insisted, had his church sheltered the hunted rebel leader. This Sunday, however, "more people than usual came to mass: perhaps almost 300." "That probably has to do with the recent events," the priest suggested. hts/sa/nb _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------