O.A.U. Committee To Assist Congo

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30543, 11 September 1964, Page 11

O.A.U. Committee To Assist Congo

fN.Z.PA.-Rettter— Copyright) ADDIS ABABA, September 10. The Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of African Unity this morning approved a nine-point resolution to solve the Congo problem.

The resolution was adopted after a session lasting until 3 a.m. One of the main decisions was to set up an ad hoc commission to help the Congo to achieve national conciliation and to bring about normal relations between the Congo and the neighbouring Congo Brazzaville and Burundi. The chairman will be Mr Jomo Kenyatta, of Kenya. Members will be Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Somalia, Guinea, Cameroon, Upper Volta, the United Arab Republic and Tunisia. The conference appealed to the Congo Government to stop immediately the recruitment of mercenaries and to “expel as soon as possible those mercenaries whc are in the Congo,” to facilitate an African solution. It noted a solemn undertaking given by Mr Tshombe'

to guarantee the security of combatants laying down their arms. The ministers called on Britain to convene, as a matter of urgency, a conference of all Southern Rhodesian political groups to prepare a new constitution “to ensure majority rule on the basis of one-man one-vote.” They also demanded the immediate release of Mr Joshua Nkomo, the Rev. N. Sithole and all other political prisoners. They added that O.A.U. member states maintained their firm stand against any declaration of unilateral independence by a European minority government, and pledged appropriate measures, including the recognition and support of an African Nationalist government in exile, should such an eventuality arise.