U.N. Assembly To Meet On Congo

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29389, 16 December 1960, Page 17

U.N. Assembly To Meet On Congo

NEW YORK, December 15. The United Nations Main Political Committee approached the end of its Algerian debate today, and was expected to meet late into the night in an effort to reach a vote on the issue.

Although there were still several speakers listed, delegates said they would make every effort to conclude the item to clear the way for a full-scale discussion in the General Assembly on Friday on the Congo situation.

India and Jugoslavia yesterday requested an urgent meeting of the General Assembly to deal with the Congo crisis. Their move arose from failure of the Security Council to resolve an East-West deadlock The Assembly would debate the Congo situation on Friday morning, it was announced by the acting President, Mr Saide Hasan, of Pakistan. The demand for the urgent Congo debate was made by the Indian Defence Minister. Mr V. K. Krishna Menon, and the Jugoslav Foreign Minister, Mr Koca Popovic.

The Soviet Deputy-Foreign Minister. Mr Valerian Zorin, who early today vetoed a Western resolution on the Congo in the Security Council, said the Soviet delegation thought an Assembly debate was necessary. He said the Congo situation had brought the new African country “to the brink of war.”

The Congo debate was expected to take up most of the weekend, leaving the Assembly barely 48 hours to deal with a number of pending matters before adjourning until March. Some delegates expressed doubts that the Assembly would be able to adjourn on December 20, and predicted that Christmas Eve was a more likely date. The 99-member body had yet to fill vacancies on the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, and deal with the reports of several of its committees. There was no indication today that the deadlock which developed last week in the secret balloting to fill the council vacancies had been resolved.

One vacancy still existed on each council, with Portugal vieing with Liberia to sit in the Security Council, and India and Belgium rivals for representation on the Economic and Social CouncilWestern delegates, who have concluded that Portugal’s chances of being elected were slim be-

cause of hostility from AfroAsian States, were reported to be considering the possibility of substituting the Netherlands for the traditional West European seat.

There were suggestions in the lobbies that if that move failed to bring about a decisive result, an agreement under which the Netherlands and Liberia shared the two-year term on the council might be negotiated. A similar agreement last year broke a deadlock between Poland and Turkey. Poland in the end took a one-year term, and will be replaced next year by Turkey. The Assembly .is due to take up reports from its Economic and Trusteeship Committees. Included in the Trusteeship Committee’s report are a number of resolutions for adoption dealing with South-west Africa, including one which would have the General Assembly send a fact-finding group to the mandated territory, which is administered by the South African Government, and investigate conditions there.