NKRUMAH’S PLANS STILL UNCLEAR

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30998, 2 March 1966, Page 17

NKRUMAH’S PLANS STILL UNCLEAR

GVZ.P.A. Keuter—Copyright)

MOSCOW. March 1.

The former President of Ghana. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, arrived in Moscow by air early today from Peking but his ultimate destination is still shrouded in mystery.

Before he left Peking he vowed he would go home and “stamp out without delay” the army rebellion which toppled him from power last Thursday.

But his statement did not say when he planned to return to Ghana.

In Accra, the new regime’s leader. General Joseph Ankrah, when he heard this warned Dr. Nkrumah that if he came back to Ghana he would be put on trial. Some observers believe that Dr. Nkrumah will go to Cairo

where his Egyptian-born wife Fathia and their three children were allowed to go after the Army coup. A scheduled Soviets Aerflot Airline flight left for Cairo early this morning but Dr. Nkrumah was not on board.

The Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr Andrei Gromyko, was at Moscow's secluded Vnukovo 2 airport to meet the special Soviet plane which

brought Dr. Nkrumah from Peking. Foreign reporters were barred from the airfield. Observers doubt whether the Russians want Dr. Nkrumah to stay long in Moscow. In Favour The Ghana Embassy, which has come out in favour of the new regime, has asked for Soviet recognition of the takeover. and Dr. Nkrumah’s presence here would be an embarrassment if they plan to do this.

Dr. Nkrumah spent the night at a government guest house in the Lenin hills just outside Moscow. In Accra. Ghana’s new leaders were hard at work on new measures to bring the country back from the brink of the economic ruin blamed on Dr. Nkrumah. One of the first moves the new regime took after last Thursday’s Army coup was to set up a commission to make a thorough study of the economy. Proposals by the commission will be announced in the next few days. In his first broadcast to the

nation since the coup. General Joseph Ankrah said last night that Ghana was close to famine. He appealed to friendly countries to help restore his country’s economy. The general attacked Dr. Nkrumah for squandering the country’s reserves in prestige projects such as the creation of the private army costing £500,000 a year, and the outlay on buildings for last year’s summit conference of the Organisation of African Unity. “The ordinary man could not afford the basic needs of life.” the general declared. He appealed to all farmers to grow more food, and to all Ghanaians to work harder. Many Western diplomats in Accra believe last week’s revolution will bring in foreign investments to help the country get back on to its feet economically. “Swift Steps” The “New York Times" news service reported from Accra that, after years of close identification with the Communist bloc, Ghana was taking swift steps to redress the East-West imbalance.

The presence of a team of Russian advisers attached to Nkrumah’s personal security guard had been common knowledge in Accra for more than a year. They are reported to have formed the core of the resistance when the Army breached Nkrumah’s fortresslike Flagstaff House residence last Thursday. A reliable Ghanaian official who witnessed the identification of the bodies brought out of Flagstaff House reported 11 Russians among the dead, the “New York Times” said. It was not clear whether all the Russians were security men or whether some might have been members of a seven-man Russian helicopter crew assigned to fly Nkrumah on short trips within the country.