IVORY COAST: HB man died in cell say rebels

Eva Bradley
Former Havelock North man Hamish Sands, who was being held by Ivory Coast's rebel New Forces, was found dead in his cell yesterday.
"He died during the night. The body was found in his cell," said Amadou Kone, a top aide to New Forces leader Guillaume Soro, from Bouake in the centre of the west African country.
"I don't yet know the circumstances but apparently the death was of natural causes."
Mr Sands was shifted from Bouake to rebel stronghold Korogho on Friday.
Foreign Minister Phil Goff said last night the reports he had received suggested that Mr Sands may have committed suicide.
"Word (came) from the British High Commission in Wellington that Hamish Sands had committed suicide.
"It came through one of their locally engaged political officers."
But the family has said Mr Sands was not suicidal, raising the possibility of foul play.
A spokesman for Mr Goff said earlier last night that the minister received word yesterday afternoon that Mr Sands may have died, but had not been able to verify the reports.
"We were trying at that point to ascertain if there was any accuracy to them. It was literally just a report that had reached us."
Mr Sands, 36, was arrested by rebels on March 13 after he crossed the buffer zone dividing rebels from government territory in the cocoa-producing Ivory Coast, which has been locked in a low-level civil war since September 2002.
Rebels claim to have found him carrying body armour, navigational equipment and contact numbers for the ruling government forces and mercenary supply outfits.
They claimed his intention was to kill political and military rebel leaders on behalf of the Ivorian presidency.
The New Zealand Foreign Ministry has been fighting a losing battle to have him released.
A former student at Havelock North Primary School, he was believed to have suffered behavioural problems from an early age.
One teacher described him as "the most difficult child I've ever taught in my life".
His mother now lives in Taupo and his sister, Catherine Sands-Wearing, made an impassioned plea from Wellington for her brother's release shortly after learning of his capture, saying he had behavioural and psychological problems.
Although he allegedly told the rebels he was a former New Zealand army captain, as well as a French Foreign Legionary, Mr Goff said there was no record of that, suggesting Mr Sands had made exaggerated claims about his military background.
Although the International Red Cross had visited Mr Sands twice since his arrest, their latest request to do so had been turned down.
They were alerted by the local authorities of the existence of a "white body" yesterday evening.
"We made the normal procedures to have access to him up north, yet this was denied," said Red Cross spokesman Kim Gordon-Bates.
"The next thing we knew we were notified of his death."