Agreement Reported On Congo Unity

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29717, 10 January 1962, Page 16

Agreement Reported On Congo Unity

(N ZP-A.-Reuler—Copyright) ELISABETHVILLE, January 9. The Katanga Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee met yesterday and was reported to have accepted in principle the eight-point Kitona declaration ending Katanga’s secession from the Congo.

The committee is reported to have agreed to Katangese submission to the Fundamental Law—the Congo’s constitution—providing the Central Government in Leopoldville also adhered to rt. A plenary session of the Assembly to debate the findings of its closed session did not take place yesterday as planned. No new date or time was announced for the session. President Tshombe of Katanga has said the Kitona declaration, signed by himself and the Central Government Prime Minister, (Mr Adoula), could not be valid until the Katanga Assembly ratified it. It is understood that the plenary session was postponed because President Tshombe returned later than expected yesterday from a week end visit to Jadotville, north-west of Elisabethville. Aircraft Returned In Paris, the evening newspaper •’Paris-Presse” said yesterday that four Spitfires were being dismantled and, sent back to Belgium after an abortive attempt to fly them to Katanga, the British United Press reported. The newspaper said the fighters were bought from the Belgian Air Force as

surplus by a private company in Ostend. They were flown one at a time to the airfield of Beau, vais, north-west of Paris, ostensibly on their way to Spain to be used in shooting the D-Day film “The Longest Day.” But the film had no scenes that were being shot in Spain and the French became suspicious that the aircraft were destined for Katanga, the newspaper said. The French Prime Minister (Mr Debre) told the Belgian Ambassador that the aircraft were being sent back to Ostend. The newspaper said the French ordered that they should be dismantled and taken back by road to avoid the possibility of their being flown on to Katanga. Mercenaries’ Plans In Leopoldville a United Nations spokesman alleged that 35 French-speaking mercenaries, who said they planned to fight for President Tshombe, arrived yesterday in Brazzaville and left immediately by chartered aircraft for Ndola, in Northern Rhodesia, Reuter reported. The spokesman said the mercenaries arrived in Brazzaville, in the former French Congo, on a regular scheduled flight from Paris. United Nations civilians aboard the aircraft said the men freely admitted they were paid to fight for Katanga. The spokesman said all the mercenaries spoke French, although they were not necessarily French citizens. French sources said an advertisement appeared in the Marseilles newspaper about a week ago asking people who wanted to fight, and to make money, to fight for Katanga Asked what the United Nations intended to do about the men. the spokesman, Mr Oliver Jackson, said. “What can we do?”

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