U.S. Backs Kasavubu To Represent Congo

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29366, 19 November 1960, Page 13

U.S. Backs Kasavubu To Represent Congo

(Rec. 10.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, November 18. The United States staked its prestige today on a bid to seat a Congolese delegation named by the President, Mr Joseph Kasavubu, in the United Nations General Assembly.

The bid is being made in the face of strenuous Soviet bloc opposition and objections from some Afro-Asian States.

Ignoring efforts by several delegations to postpone action in the 99-nation Assembly until a special conciliation commission has visited the Congo and reported back, the United States pressed for acceptance of the credentials of Mr Kasavubu's delegation.

The President of the former French Congo, .ibbe Fulbert Youlou. plans to address the Assembly in support tor Mr Kasavubu's claim, which already has been endorsed by the Credentials Committee of the Assembly. Also in the balance today is the 15-member conciliation commission's plan/to meet in* Leopoldville on November 26.

Mr Kasavubu warned last night that it would go at its own risk if his delegation was not first recognised by the United Nations.

The Western allies, now outnumbered in the United Nations since the influx of new African States, has taken an unprecedented battering on procedural issues 'during the current Assembly session. Today they are

rallying support in hopes of scor ing a victory on this question

A group of African States is expected to seek adjournment of the debate until the conciliation commission has reported, and Western informants conceded that the vote would be “very very close.” However, they expected to defeat any postponement motion. Abbe Youlou’s statement is expected to bolster the Western position. The 43-year-old leader, the first Chief of State to address the Assembly in priestly robes, is expected to sway some votes. Provided that the adjournment move fails, the Assembly will almost certainly debate the question all day, with a possible Saturday session too, observers said.

In Katanga today senior United Nations officers began a full-scale investigation into the massacre of 33 African mineworkers in the central Katanga town of Manono amid reports that several of the murdered men were victims of cannibalism

A United Nations spokesman in Elisabethville refused to comment on the reports, but said a full report on the “butchery” would be issued when the investigation is completed.