U.S. Plan To Provide Relief For Biafra

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31864, 17 December 1968, Page 12

U.S. Plan To Provide Relief For Biafra

TN.Z. Press Assn. — Copyright) WASHINGTON, Dec. 15. President Johnson’s Administration has drawn up detailed contingency plans for a massive sea, land and air-emergency relief operation in Biafra, Government sources in Washington report, according to the New York Times News Service.

The plans are said to envisage an emergency relief expenditure from President Johnson's contingency funds of at least SUS2Om. This would be in addition to the SUSI7m the Government has already contributed to relief in the 18-month old Nigerian civil war. Private United States voluntary agencies have so far contributed SUSSm more, thus making the American contribution to Nigerian war relief so far two-thirds of everything raised internationally. The Administration is reported meanwhile to be waiting to see what develops from a new British effort to bring about a cease-fire in the Nigerian conflict. Effort* By Britain Britain, which formerly ruled Nigeria as a colony and which gave it its independence, has dispatched Lord Shepherd, the Minister of State in the Commonwealth Foreign Office, to Lagos to talk with Colonel Gowon, the head of the Federal military government. It has separately sent Lord Shepherd’s deputy, Mr Maurice Foley, a Parliamentary under-secretary, to Addis Ababa, to urge Emperor Haile Selassie to place his prestige behind a new eease-fire attempt.

The Emperor, a leader of the Organisation of African Unity, sought unsuccessfully last summer to persuade Colonel Gowon and his rival, Lieutenant-Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, the head of the secessionist Biafran regime, to end the war on humanitarian grounds. The effort broke down, however, when Colonel Ojukwu refused Federal military government offers for considerable autonomy within Nigeria’s Federal framework and insisted, instead, on continuing to fight for a separate, Ibo-dominated, Biafran state. United States officials are hoping that the British mediation will prove successful. Biafran Resentment Nonetheless, doubts are felt that the British, who have been selling arms to the Federal military government which they recognise as the legitimate government of Nigeria fighting a rebellion, will have appreciable influence with the Biafran*. The latter are resentful of Britain’s actions. In the meantime, a Biafran “task force,” created in late November on the orders of the Under-Secretary of State (Mr Nicholas Katzenbach), has been drawing up a

wide range of possible relief operations should the British effort fail. The task force is headed by Mr Robert Moore, the deputy assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. It reports directly to Mr Katzenbach, to whom Mr Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State, has assigned responsibility for United States policy toward Nigeria. President Johnson is being kept closely informed, authoritative sources report. x Change In Policy

Mr Katzenbach’s decision to take personal charge of contingency planning for Nigeria reflects a sharp shift in United States policy, these sources say.

Until late November, responsibility rested with Mr Joseph Palmer, the assistant Secretary for African Affairs. Mr Palmer is a career diplomat, who is said to enjoy Mr Rusk’s full confidence. However, in recent weeks, as the threat of mass starvation has mounted, and both the Federal military government and Biafran regimes have continued to refuse outside pleas for ceasefire, Senator Edward Kennedy and other congressional and private figures have brought pressure on Mr Katzenbach for a “fresh look” at what they term “indecision” and “passivity" in the United States attitude.

Senator Kennedy has publicly urged President Johnson to name a prominent, private American citizen as a special top-level co-ordinator for United States relief efforts in Biafra. He and other critics have contended that the United States must drop its standing refusal to send air, or overland, relief convoy* into Biafra in deference to the Federal military government’s “sovereignty." Senator Kennedy and others have conceded that such action might entail risks in a war zone. However, they have insisted, the United States is the only country that has the power to prevent wholesale starvation in Biafra, has the ability, they have said, and needs only the will.

Officials are reluctant to discuss the contingency relief plans prepared by the task force. They are understood, however, to range from the unloading of relief ships at Port Harcourt, and the movement of truck convoys into Biafra, has the ability, they food, medicine and emergency supplies under armed guard. “We’ve got to persuade Colonel Gowon to give Biafra credible guarantees of autonomy and safety,” said an expert source. “We've got to persuade Colonel Ojukwu that more and more of his people will die as he fights on, and that a cease-fire Is imperative.”