Talks On Futiire Of Katanga Sought

Press, Volume C, Issue 29626, 23 September 1961, Page 11

Talks On Futiire Of Katanga Sought

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NDOLA (Northern Rhodesia), September 22. Plans are going ahead in Ndola today for top-level talks on the future of Katanga.

The central Government of Mr Cyrille Adoula is expected to send a delegation from Leopoldville to join the United Nations and the Katanga Government in the talks, according to sources close to the United Nations.

The head of United Nations civil operations in the Congo, Mr Mahmoud Khiari, said on Wednesday after signing the Katanga truce agreement that Katanga’s “secession” from the Congo was the fundamental problem, and said the United Nations hoped talks would resume within 48 hours. President Moise Tshombe of Katanga has said he is willing to meet Mr Adoula—“preferably outside the Congo.” Reuters correspondents report that life is slowly creeping back to normal in the Katanga capital, Elisabethville. Everyone there is now anxiously waiting the outcome of negotiations dealing with Katanga’s future, although a compromise acceptable to both sides seems remote and a final solution equally distant Baluba Camp

The Union Minlere, the big copper-mining company, is now working at full strength after a four-day stoppage during the Katanga fighting. But while people are again moving more freely about the streets, the situation is still reported to be critical at the camp near Elisabethville, where 30,000 Baluba refugees are living. A Belgian who visited the camp described conditions there as “appalling,” and said many people were starving because they thought food given to them had been poisoned. Dr. Conor O’Brien, United Nations Secretary-General’s representative in Katanga, said that 60 tons of food was sent to the Baluba camp by the United Nations yesterday. United Nations guards on the camp have been reinforced as a result of breakouts by the Balubas and attacks on Europeans. In Moscow yesterday, a Tass commentator said the Katanga cease-fire evoked no other feelings than “those of indignation.” “The United Nations command has actually acknowledged its total helplessness, if not to say worse,” he said. The commentator said United Nations officials had “sacrificed’' the Congolese people in the “interests of colonialist quarters and foreign monopolies.” Moscow Radio, in a broadcast to Britain said British policy in the Congo “is determined by her desire to defend British financial interests in Katanga as well as the fear that the liberation movement

in the Congo may spread “to the Rhodesian Federation.” The President of Ghana (Dr. Nkrumah) yesterday objected to a cease-fire in Katanga before the “maintenance of the unity and territorial integrity of the Congo” had been secured. In a Note to the President of the United Nations General Assembly (Mr Mongi Slim) he said there was a “serious danger” that the death of Mr Dag Hammarskjold and the “temporary military setback” of the United Nations forces would result in the arranging of such a truce before the “main objectives of. the United Nations action in Katanga” were achieved. Moscow Radio today said that the British Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Lord Lansdowne, had exercised “direct pressure” on the United Nations command to organise the Katanga ceasefire talks with President Tshombe.

“The Ndola agreement is a direct capitulation by the United Nations,” the radio said in a home service broad cast. “It is no accident that the puppet Tshombe is now dictating terms and demanding that the United Nations troops shall quit Katanga altogether.” At the United Nations yesterday, British delegation sources described as “wildly irresponsible” hints thrown out in some quarters that Britain had obstructed the United Nations operation in Katanga and was somehow responsible for Mr Hammarskjold’s death. Britain was believed to be particularly irritated that such suggestions had come from countries whose record of co-operation with the organisation she considered to be much less impressive than her own. Nkrumah’s Charges Dr. Nkrumah in his Note said: “The Government of Ghana considers it essential that all member States of the. United Nations, particularly those from Africa, should come to the immediate aid of the United Nations.” He said the United Nations forces had suffered a military setback because they had been opposed by “large numbers of mercenaries.” The Ghana Government had already drawn the attention of the Assembly to the supply of Fouga Magister aircraft made in France for Belgium under North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’agreement to the “rebel forces in Katanga,” Dr. Nkrumah said. He said that according to

the information of his Government “these very aircraft are attacking at this moment the forces of the United Nations." He also accused “certain powers from outside the African continent,” of plotting to destroy United Nations prestige and to maintain “colonial rule and exploitation in the African continent.” They had flooded Katanga with heavy modern armament of all kinds, he said.

“The object of these Powers is clearly to maintain a puppet regime in the Province of Katanga in absolute defiance of the central Government of the Congo and of the decisions of the Security Council,” he said. Over-flight Rights

The • British delegation sources said that Britain's actions in connexion with the Congo problem could stand up to any examination. They cited in particular the quick consent that the Government gave to a request for overflight rights for Ethiopian jet fighters needed to provide protection for United Nations transports in the Congo. They noted that permission for flights of these aircraft over British African territory had been forthcoming within 24 hours, yet fighters still had not been dispatched. This prompt response contrasted with the obstructive tactics of several countries towards the United Nations Congo operation, the sources said.

British policy in the Congo had been directed to a single aim—peace in the land, the sources said. In particular, Britain had urged the conclusion of an early cease-fire in Katanga and an end of bloodshed. This now had been brought about.

Observations made in some countries about British policy towards the United Nations Congo operation were both offensive and inaccurate in the opinion of these sources.

In New Delhi, an Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman said yesterday that “nasty allegations of atrocities by Indian troops under United Nations command in the Congo are completely false.” He told reporters that several Consular representatives in Elisabethville had “refuted allegations that Indian troops were involved in acts of cruelty."