Oran Paralysed By O.A.S. Strike

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29800, 17 April 1962, Page 15

Oran Paralysed By O.A.S. Strike

(NJ! J*. A .-Reuter—Copy rig h t) ORAN (Western Algeria), April 16. Oran was paralysed today by a strike called by the Secret Army Organisation (0.A.5.) in protest against the death sentence passed on the Oran-born former general, Edmond Jouhaud.

There was no electricity, gas or public transport from 6 a.m. and the strikers planned to remain out until 8 p.m. The Oran telephone exchange this morning only accepted official calls from France, because of the strike. The automatic telephone link between Algiers and Oran was working normally. The strike follows others in Algiers and Philippeville (eastern Algeria) in protest against the sentence passed

on Jouhaud. the former OAS. leader in the Oran region, by a Paris Court on Friday. The O.AJS. virtually controlled the whole city centre of Oran yesterday in a new show of power. A commando of about 100 men calmly occupied the Oran Telephone Exchange for five hours and a half, after warning riot police guards they were coming. The riot police packed their munitions and left the

building before the O.AS. men, half of them in military uniforms, arrived. Journalists were then invited by the O.A.S. to visit the exchange and to tee everything was working normally. Post Office workers even changed shifts during the O.A.S, "occupation.’’ The aim was apparently a display of power in the region where Jouhaud had been O.A.S. commander. During the occupation road blocks were manned by O.A.S. men in uniform as far as 500 yards away from the exchange and practically the entire centre of the city was in O.A.S. hands. Workman Killed

In Algiers today. O.A.S. commandos opened fire on a group of Moslem workmen in the European quarter of Bal-el-Oued, killing one and wounding two others. Security forces rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area where the O.A.S. men were hiding in a factory.