U.N. Jet Aircraft Raid Katanga Airfield

Press, Volume C, Issue 29690, 7 December 1961, Page 17

U.N. Jet Aircraft Raid Katanga Airfield

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, December 6. United Nations jet aircraft from Luluabourg today strafed Katanga planes at Kolwezi, 150 miles north-west of Elisabethville, before they could take off, according to the Commander of United Nations forces in Katanga (Brigadier Singappa Raja), reported the Associated Press. The senior United Nations official, Mr Brian Urquhart, said this morning that a Katanga aircraft, a Dornier, had dropped three bombs on Elisabethville Airport without causing damage, reported Reuter.

Katangese soldiers throughout Elisabethville poured Sten-gun and rifle bullets at a United Nations Douglas DC 3 twin engined transport plane which flew over the town at about 6500 feet early today. Brigadier Singappa Raja said this morning: “The cease-fire is finished. I have just heard from Leopoldville that we are getting reinforcements, and we are very glad to hear it.” City Tense Earlier, Elisabethville was quiet but tense early today as the city waited to see if fighting between the United Nations and Katanga would resume. Only an occasional shot or mortar bomb explosion broke the silence last night, said the British United Press The United Nations put yesterday’s deaths at 41—38 Katangese. two white mercenaries and one Indian United Nations officer But one United Nations official said he had seen 70 dead at the scene of the fighting Both sides claim that the other fired first when the United Nations tiroops moved towards a road block the Katangese had set up on the main road from Elisabethville to the airport. The United Nations command considers the road essential to its communications The Katangan Minister of the Interior (Mr Godefroid Munongo) said last night that all conciliation nd negotiation efforts by the Katanga Government were finished. Children Killed A local senior Red Cross official, Mr Andre Van Roey, said two children were killed and 14 women injured when a United Nations mortar shell hit a lorry evacuating women and children from a police

camp near the fighting zone. “It was a pitiful sight,” he said. Armoured cars which were reported destroyed by the United Nations yesterday afternoon were again to be seen in Elisabethville today. The Reine Elisabeth Hospital, in the centre of the town, reported having 12 bodies, among them those of three European civilians, reported the Associated Press. The Red Cross reported that eight bodies were seen at Avenue Doogmans, near the centre of 'the town, but that it was impossible to approach them as the firing was too heavy. The Geneva Red Cross representative in Elisabethville appealed to Geneva again, reporting that the United Nations had again fired on Red Cross ambulances. Mr Urquhart confirmed today that Katangese 75 m.m. and mortar shells had hit the United Nations headquarters during the night and also hit the camp housing

Gurkha troops, reported the Associated Press. In Britain, the military commander in the Congo, General Sean McKeown, of Ireland, confirmed that he was soon to be replaced. General McKeown, passing through London on his way back to the Congo, said his contract was up at the end of the month and he had

asked “in strong terms” that it not be renewed, said the “Daily Mail.” He added that he supported his countryman, Dr. Conor O’Brien, in his attack on Britain, Rhodesia, South Africa and Belgium over the Katanga situation. General McKeown predicted an African .as his successor.