DATE=1/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=DAKAR / CAIRO RALLY (L)
NUMBER=2-257998
BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  Organizers of the Dakar-to-Cairo endurance 
rally are making preparations (ED'S: have begun) to 
airlift several-hundred vehicles and 15-hundred 
participants in the race from Niamey, the capital of 
Niger, to southern Libya.  The airlift, unprecedented 
in the more than 20-years of the rally, was launched 
after a terrorist threat obliged organizers to cancel 
four legs through the northern desert of Niger.  
Correspondent Scott Bobb reports.

TEXT:  Organizers say the airlift will take four-days 
and the rally is to resume Monday or Tuesday, after 
vehicles, equipment and competitors are flown from 
Niamey to airports in (Sabbah and Waw el-Kebir) 
southern Libya.

They say they cancelled the next four legs of the 
famous endurance test after the French government said 
it believed there was a serious risk of an external 
terrorist attack in northern Niger. 

The government of Niger fought Touareg rebels in the 
north during the 1990's and anti-government rebels are 
also operating in the northern regions of neighboring 
Chad.  But sources say they believe the threat comes 
from militants of Algeria's Armed Islamic Group, which 
has been fighting the government in Algiers since the 
cancellation of elections eight-years ago, which 
Islamist parties appeared likely to win.

The government of Niger last year arrested a group of 
these guerrillas while they were entering the country 
from Algeria. 

            /// REST OPT ///

Tuesday's leg of the rally, from Ouagadougou, Burkina 
Faso, to Niamey was won by Portugal's Carlos Sousa, 
who made the nearly 700-kilometer run across forest 
and desert tracks in less than six hours.  France's 
Stephane Peterhansel came in second in the leg, while 
overall rally-leader, Kenjiro Shinozuka of Japan, came 
in third.

Competitors were disappointed by the cancellation of 
the remaining legs in Niger, which are said to be 
among the most difficult in the rally.  The race is 
due to end at Egypt's Giza pyramids in 10-days.   
(SIGNED)

NEB/SB/GE/ENE/RAE 



12-Jan-2000 11:41 AM EDT (12-Jan-2000 1641 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.