F.L.N. Object To Other Participants In Talks

Press, Volume C, Issue 29478, 3 April 1961, Page 11

F.L.N. Object To Other Participants In Talks

(N .Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright) TUNIS, April 7. Algerian insurgent sources said in Tunis yesterday they were ready to negotiate “anywhere, any time and as soon as possible” with France to end the Algerian War—so long as formal talks were held only with them.

The sources added that they did not mind whom else the French “consulted.” Earlier an insurgent spokesman said the F.L.N. had decided not to attend the peace talks, scheduled to begin at Evian, ui the shores of Lake Geneva, next Friday. The sources said the French had previously pledged that they would negotiate exclusively with them at the peace conference, though reserving the right to hold unofficial consultations with other groups. But France’s Algerian Affairs Minister, Mr Louis Joxe, appointed to head the French team at Evian, said yesterday that negotiations on Algerian peace and self-

determination would be held equally with the insurgent “Provisional Government” and the “Algeria National Movement” (M.N.A.).

The Tunis-based insurgents regard the M.N.A. as “lackeys of French colonialism.”

Insurgent sources said, yesterday that M. Joxe’s statement was a “repudiation” of Thursday’s French-insurgent communique on the opening of formal talks.

In Algiers, the news of the possible rebel boycott of the talks disappointed most people. Some thought the rebels were seeking more concessions from the French, such as the liberation of Mohammed Ben Bela, a rebel leader at present in a French island prison. They thought that the n.eeting of Cabinet Ministers under President de Gaulle on Thursday, a day before the talks were due to start, might bring an announcement of an amnesty for Ben Bella. Political/observers in Paris, however, do not take such an optimistic view of the situation.

Several French journalists noted that the change of the rebel attitude coincided with the return from Moscow of Ahmed Francis, the rebel Minister of Finance, who had been expected to lead the Algerian delegation at the Evian talks.

The French Government yesterday awarded the Order of the Nation posthumously to the Mayor of Evian. Mr Camille Blanc, who was killed on Friday by a bomb. Reuter reported.

The citation, signed by the Prime Minister, Mr Defare, said the Mayor “fell in the exercise of his functions, victim of an odious attack." It mentioned his war-time resistance record and outstanding service to Evian, chosen as the site for peace talks with the Algerian insurgents.

The Order of the Nation corresponds to the British George Cross in recognising civilian courage, but is also awarded for other outstanding services to the nation. The Associated Press reported from Berne that Swiss authorities had temporarily

suspended their preparations for the planned FrenchAlgerian peace talks, official Swiss sources reported today. A Government spokesman declined 'o go into details. Under original plans, the Swiss were to house and protect the Algerian delegation which was to have lived near Geneva, but to have negotiated at Evian across the lake. Informed sources said the Swiss authorities. deeply shocked at the killing of Mr Blanc, were now seriously concerned over the safety of two officials of the Swiss Foreign Service who helped to prepare the negotiations, aimed at ending the war in Algeria. They said the two Swiss mediators, Mr Olivier Long and Mr Giovanni Enrico Bucher, had received letters threatening their lives. According to the informants, these letters originated from a French extremist group, the "ultras,” who oppose the talks and claim to represent French settlers in Algeria. Mr Blanc had received similar letters before he was killed.