Congo Hostages’ Fate Unknown

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30636, 30 December 1964, Page 9

Congo Hostages’ Fate Unknown

LEOPOLDVI The fate of an New Zealanders be] in the Wamba regi Congo was today u A Government mercenary column, which is driving on Wamba, said about half the 160 white hostages in the area were believed alive. The fate of the other 80 missionaries and merchants was still unknown, the force radioed to Leopoldville yesterday. Protestant missionaries who were evacuated to Leopoldville from Paulis on November 26 said then that the entire white population of Wamba had been killed by the rebels. Since then, however, there have been reports that some were still alive. The rebels were reported using Wamba as a concentration area for whites. In Leopoldville, the British Embassy said its records showed three Britons and one New Zealander were in Wamba when the rebels arrived in October. However, the British Consul, Mr Harold Clare White, said it was possible the rebels had taken one Australian, one

(N.Z.P.A.- Reuter—Copyright)

LLE, December 29. Australian and two lieved held by rebels ion of the northern ncertain. New Zealander, and six Britons to Wamba from their nearby mission station of Ibambi. Mr White also said some reports suggested the people from Ibambi had been taken to the town of Watsa, north of Paulis. Details from the mercenaries in the area today were sketchy. The identities of hostages freed so far were not given. A United Nations doctor was believed slaughtered by the rebels, who have butchered more than 160 whites in the last two months. The mercenary column radioed that it had freed 10 Greek merchants at Metchi, a small town 25 miles south of Paulis. The Greeks said the doctor was believed killed by the insurgents in late November, the report said.