ANXIETY AT U.N. OVER CONGO

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29278, 9 August 1960, Page 13

ANXIETY AT U.N. OVER CONGO

Security Council To Debate Next Step (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 8. Delegates to the United Nations Security Council worked feverishly today to find a formula for the entry of United Nations troops into Katanga without bloodshed. Spurring their efforts is a threat by Ghana and Guinea to move in their own units if the world organisation fails to deploy a contingent in the defiant Congolese province, which wants autonomy from the Central Government. The 11-nation council is due to meet at noon to hear a report * ron ? United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Dag Hammarskjold, on the Congo crisis, which, he is reported to believe, has the explosive potential of another Korea.

The council planned to meet last night, but the session was called off to await the arrival today of a five-man Congolese delegation, headed by the deputy Prime Minister, Mr Antoine Gizenga. When he stopped in London last night. Mr Gizenga told reporters: “We demand the immediate withdrawal of Belgian troops from all parts of the Congo and we want to see United Nations troops in Katanga.” Mr Hammarskjold has ordered senior United Nations officials to meet Mr Gizenga at Idlewild Airport today, but informants said he would refuse to confer with the Finance Minister of Katanga, Mr Jean-Baptiste Kibwe, wbo arrived in New York last night to promote the “breakaway” province’s case for greater selfgovernment United Nations secretariat sources said there was “no basis” for a meeting between Mr Hammarskjold and Mr Kibwe. At a press conference today, Mr Kibwe said he would ask the United Nations to "declare a moratorium” in hostilities between the - Congo and Katanga, pending the departure of Belgian troops, after which a referendum would be held in the province. Mr Kibwe said the outcome of the United Nations-supervised referendum would be “proof to the United Nations that the population of Katanga is entirely behind the present Government of the province.” The Congo Prime Minister, Mr Patrice Lumumba, was reported to be on the last leg of an extended tour and bound for his capital of Leopoldville after asking for urgent Cabinet action to oust the United Nations from his troubled land because of its failure to send troops into Katanga. The Katanga operation was called off after the province’s Premier, Mr Moise Tshombe, warned that he would use force to prevent the entry of United Nations troops. Afro-Asian Plans Resident representatives of the "little four” non-permanent members of the Security Council—Ceylon, Argentina, Tunisia and Ecuador—led efforts to ease the deepening crisis with a resolution which might satisfy both Mr Lumumba and Mr Tshombe. They conferred repeatedly over the week-end and sought the support of the African nations for a draft which would reaffirm. In stronger terms than before, demands for a Belgian withdrawal

from the Congo, while giving a reassurance to Katanga that the United Nations force would not prejudice its constitutional case. Some drafts of the document set a one-week time limit for Belgian troops to get out, but it was uncertain whether this deadline would be retained. An order that Belgium withdraw "immediately,” or “forthwith,” was said to be a possibility. African backing for the final version was regarded as allimportant because delegates considered that the Soviet Union dare not veto a formula which was approved by a majority of African States. Tunisia is the only African member of the Council. Ceylon is the other State from the AfroAsian group. The Soviet Union might also introduce a resolution, or amendments to the Ceylonese-Tunisian resolution, that would have United Nations units use any force necessary to get into Katanga. The Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Vasily V. Kuznetsov, told a reporter he had not yet de-

tided whether to submit any proposal. But in Moscow, “Pravda” said the Congolese wanted the Security Council to “issue an order to the United Nations forces for the immediate liberation of Katanga from the Belgian occupiers.” It was taken for granted that Britain, France and the United States, along with the eight other members, would support a reaffirmation of the United Nations cardinal principle of non-interfer-ence in a State’s internal affairs. Both Britain and the United States were reported to have urged upon the Belgian Foreign Minister, Mr Pierre Wigny, the need to announce a date by which Belgian forces would be out of the Congo. In Brussels, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation representatives also are pressing the Belgians to make a complete withdrawal, including the Kamina, Kitona and Banana bases granted under a friendship treaty, which the Congolese have since renounced. It has not been ratified.