KATANGA TROOPS IN REBELLION

Press, Volume C, Issue 29621, 18 September 1961, Page 11

KATANGA TROOPS IN REBELLION

“All-Out” War Declared By President Tshombe

(N.Z. Press Association—Coprrtflht) ELISABETHVILLE, September 17. Forces of President Moise Tshombe mutinied against their officers at Jadotville in Katanga and agreed to a ceasefire with defending Irish United Nations troops, the United Nations announced tonight. About 150 Irish United Nations troops had been holding out for six days in Jadotville, where they had been sent originally at the request of the Belgian Government to protect Belgian civilians. Earlier, President Tshombe had declared total alLout war against the United Nations. He said in a proclamation handed to a Reuter reporter that he would lead the fight from command headquarters in Katanga with other members of his Government.

A spokesman at United Nations headquarters in New York said a report from the Congo on today’s activities stated:

“In the late evening hours the Congolese (Katangan) soldiers in Jadotville refused to obey their foreign officers and stopped attacking the United Nations troops. “A cease-fire was agreed upon, including the provision that the jet fighter was to be grounded and the roadblock set up by the gendarmerie on the ElisabethvilleJadotville road must be removed. “United Nations troops were provided by the Congolese soldiers with fresh food . . and it was agreed that a joint tour of Jadotville by United Nations officers, gendarmes, and local authorities will take place in the morning.-”

The information was contained in a new report reaching United Nations headquarters from Mr Sture Linner, of Sweden, senior United Nations officer in the Congo. It said that before the cease fire, the United Nations unit in Jadotville was supplied on Saturday morning by helicopter. Relief Companies Two relief companies from Elisabeth ville were pinned down by heavy fire from a strongly - fortified gendarmerie position about 12 miles away. It said there was strafing and mortar fire against the Kamina base, where United Nations troops have been under attack, and outlying sections were looted. Sniping continued in Elisabethville. the report added, but “the Congolese population throughout Katanga remained calm and fraternised with the United Nations, as did gendarmerie units in locations where there were no non-Congolese officers.” Reuter reported from E'isabethville that 8000 Euro-

peans, mostly women and children, trapped by the vicious fighting in Elisabethville, were offering Sunday prayers today for peace. At Jadotville, the Irish were known to have lost three dead, although the Katangese claimed 50 dead. So far, exact Jadotville casualty figures have not been officially announced, but a United Nations spokesman in Leopoldville said 23 Irish soldiers had been taken prisoner by the gendarmerie in Elisabethville and three are missing, presumed killed. The spokesman said 11 of the Irishmen had been taken prisoner in an attack on the Catholic Mission College radio in Elisabethville.

The Katanga gendarmerie retoo'- the radio station from the Irish group yesterday after a fierce battle. Defensive Action

A United Nations spokesman said today the United Nations troops in Katanga were under strict orders to take only defensive action, even when this involved failure to press a military advantage. The incidents of the last few days had been provoked by Katangese gendarmes under the leadership of European “mercenaries,” and the United Nations force had acted only to defend itself, he said. “The United Nations is fighting a strictly defensive battle in Katanga. The troops are under orders to defend themselves and their positions and not to take the offensive,” the spokesman said.

An Irish United Nations captain. Art Magennis, who went unarmed and blindfolded with Katanga officers as an emissary to save his captured company commander, has returned to Elisabethville to report the commander safe. The commander. Comandant Calahane, from Dublin, surrendered with 14 of his men and was threatened with being shot if the Irish 35th Battalion at JadotviUe did not release Europeans they were said to have seized two days ago. Captain Magennis showed a message he said was given him by Dr. Conor O’Brien, the United Nations SecretaryGeneral’s representative in Katanga. It said that if Commandant Calahane was shot, the United Nations would shoot either

one or both European prisoners whom the Katangese wanted released. Reinforcements are being flown from other parts of the Congo to the United Nations garrison holding out at Kamina, Africa’s biggest and newest base, against 5000 Bayek tribesmen. In Elisabethville, machinegun and rifle fire rattle along streets, according to a Reuter correspondent. Snipers lurk at every other corner. One “expert” is claimed to have killed five civilians, including a boy aged nine. Food supplies for the civilian poulation are getting dangerously low. From Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, the Rhodesian Federal Broadcasting Corporation said there were reports that Katanga villagers had beaten two Britons to death on the road between Elisabethville and the Rhodesian border.

A corporation reporter who tried to drive to Elisabethville yesterday afternoon was refused entry by a Katangese customs official, who said he understood the Britons were killed at a roadblock established by the villagers The Associated Press said that in a special communique issued in New York, the United Nations said President Tshombe had approached the British Consul in Elisabethville for a meeting today in Rhodesia. The communique said that President Tshombe was about to leave for a meeting

with United Nations representatives yesterday but was prevented by his “military advisers.”

Reuter reported from Elisabethville that President Tshombe in a proclamation issued on Saturday ordered total all-out war against the United Nations.