Tshombe Alleges Plot

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30575, 19 October 1964, Page 13

Tshombe Alleges Plot

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LEOPOLDVILLE, October 18.

The Prime Minister, Moise Tshombe, yesterday accused the Presidents of Egypt, Algeria and Mali of plotting to kill him and other Congo political leaders.

Speaking to more than 55,000 people in the King Baudoin stadium, Mr Tshombe said he had learned of a meeting between the three in Cairo where a plan was drawn up to “launch a force from Brazzaville to kill me and other leaders.” Mr Tshombe told the crowd the Congo Government was taking “defensive measures against this criminal enterprise.” Mr Tshombe also said all Egyptian and Algerian nationals must clear out of the Congo as soon as possible. Observers in Leopoldville did not know if this meant an expulsion law to this effect would be, or had been, drawn up by the Government The exact number of citizens of the two countries in the Congo is not certain, but it is known that some Egyptian teachers are working with the United here.

Meanwhile reports reaching Leopoldville said Army forces led by white mercenaries have recaptured the important town of Bumba, on the Congo river about 300 miles west of the rebel stronghold of Stanleyville. More than 70 Europeans, including 24 white nuns, were found safe in the town where there was little rebel resistance, the reports added. Congolese rebels are executing loyal moderate politicians and “intellectuals” en

masse almost daily in Stanleyville, reports said today. A Congolese who escaped from rebel headquarters said the bloodbath in the Lumumba monument square at Stanleyville was such that the area could not be cleaned. "The soil is so red with the blood of public executions that the rains are no longer able to wash the colour away,” he said. There was no official confirmation of the mass executions.