Kasavubu Warned By Hammarskjold

Press, Volume C, Issue 29403, 4 January 1961, Page 11

Kasavubu Warned By Hammarskjold

NEW YORK, January 3. The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Hammarskjold, is scheduled to fly to the Congo today after fresh outbreaks of factional fighting. He has warned the President of the Congo, Mr Joseph Kasavtibu, that the fighting could force the withdrawal of the United Nations forces there.

He will leave New York on the eve of a Security Council meeting on Cuban charges of planned American aggression and of another possible meeting of the 11-nation body on the situation in Laos.

The Congo warning became public for the first time yesterday with the release of a letter Mr Hammerskjold sent the Congolese President on December 21 analysing the feeling of the General Assembly about the explosive Congo. The letter told the President that factional incidents would touch off civil war, which, because the United Nations had no mandate to take sides, would mean its troops would have to be withdrawn. This, he has said previously. would probably spark another civil war of the Spanish type. "I am.certain, Mr President." th'e letter said, "that you share

my view that this renders military moves activating the problems of a United Nations withdrawal most inadvistable.”

Mr Hammarskjold said the Congo’s attitude to the United Nations force was "intolerable.”

These comments became public a day after a clash outside Bukava, a border town near the Belgian-administered trust territory of Ruanda-Urundi. when troops of Colonel Joseph Mobutu, the Congolese Chief of Staff, clashed with Congolese troops of the local garrison. Also released yesterday were a special report on this incident from Mr Rajeshwar Dayal, the Secretary-General's special representative in the Congo, and an exchange of notes between Mr Hammarskjold and the Belgian permanent United Nations representative. Mr M. W. Loridan. about the incident. In a note to Mr Loridan. Mr Hammarskjold accused the Belgian authorities in RuandaUrundi of assisting Colonel Mobutu's forces to launch an attack on troops loyal to the arrested former Prime Minister. Mr Patrice Lumumba.

Mr Hammarskjold called on Belgium to “take immediate and effective measures to ensure that there will be no possibility of Belgian authorities in the trust territory of Ruanda-Urundi. or elsewhere. lending sunnort directly or indirectly to military action by Congolese troops.”

He demanded that Belgian authorities disarm anv other Congolese troops entering the territory and. if necessary, guard them to see that they do not engage in military action. Mr Hammarskjold’s trin is planned to take him to South Africa for talks with the Union Government about its apartheid nolicy until January 24. then to Salisbury'. Northern Rhodesia, for a day and to Cairo for a short stav which will include a visit to the United Nations Emergency Force in Gaza.

Then "if circumstances permit.” he plans to fly to Bombay for a United Nations scientific conference and talks with Indian leaders before returning to NewYork.