GUINEA INVASION Withdrawal order by United Nations

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32462, 24 November 1970, Page 15

GUINEA INVASION Withdrawal order by United Nations

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, November 23. The United Nations Security Council, by a unanimous vote, demanded early today the immediate withdrawal of all foreign armed forces from Guinea. The council’s resolution also authorised a special mission to investigate the situation in the West African country, but the Council’s African and Asian members rejected Guinea’s request for United Nations troops.

The resolution, drafted by the Council’s five African and Asian nations, made no mention of Portugal, or of Guinea’s accusation that Portuguese troops had invaded Conakry, the capital of Guinea. The Portuguese Government had earlier denied a charge by President Toure of Guinea, saying that it had enough trouble in its African territories without looking for more.

It was the second year in succession that Guinea had gone to the Security Council with a charge of aggression against Portugal.

Last December President Toure’s Government accused Portuguese forces of bombarding border villages, and a Council resolution called on Portugal to desist from attacks on Guinea. The United Nations mission to Guinea is to be formed after consultations between the President of the Security Council and the Secretary - General, reports AA.P.-Reuter. Earlier, the Council had rejected an amendment proposed by the United States Ambassador (Mr Charles Yost) which would have had the special mission formed after consultation among members of the Security Council.

Only Britain and Taiwan joined the United States in supporting the amendment. The only details of the alleged invasion apart from those given to the Council by the Guinea Ambassador (Mr Abdoulaye Toure) and President Toure were supplied by the SecretaryGeneral (U Thant), who read a telegram he had received from the United Nations resident representative in Conakry, Mr Roger Polgar, a French official. Mr Polgar said that external forces described by the Guinea Government as Portuguese, had disembarked. He himself had seen four vessels discharging men, and fighters were flying over the city. There was heavy shooting and the situation was very serious. The resolution passed demanded “the immediate cessation of the armed attack against the Republic of Guinea, and the immediate withdrawal of all external armed forces and mercenaries, together with the military equipment used in the armed attack against the territory of the Republic of Guinea.”

Members were reported to be reluctant to accede to Guinea’s request for United Nations forces without more details of the situation there. Portugal last night called on the Security Council to reject Guinea's "groundless accusations.” The Guinea Ambassador asked for United Nations military intervention when he addressed the Council at its emergency night session, summoned in response to an appeal by President Toure. Diplomatic sources say that before there could be any thought of sending United Nations troops to Guinea, the Council must have an independent report on the situation there. Radio Conakry, monitored in Abidjan, quoted captured mercenaries as saying that the invading force was about

300 strong and had landed from six boats. The mercenaries had been briefed to capture military camps in the Guinea capital, and to occupy airstrips so that aircraft could later land troops to reinforce them, the radio alleged. It said that the invaders had supporters in Conakry who had been warned in advance of the incursion and told to wear green bands on their left arms for identification. President Toure said in a broadcast, “Hundreds and hundreds of European mercenaries of various national!-

ties are in town. I call on you to take up arms against the invaders until they are completely crushed.” President Toure, who has led Guinea since it gained independence from France in 1958, alleged only last month that white mercenaries and Stateless Africans were training in camps in Portuguese Guinea for an attack. On October 3, Guinea made this allegation officially to the United Nations General Assembly. The previous month, President Toure had announced the arrest in Guinea of foreign mercenary troops and alleged that they had been trained in Portuguese Guinea by Colonel Jean (“Black Jack”)'Schramme, the former Belgian mercenary commander in the Congo. Conakry (population 172,500), on a low-lying peninsula connected to the mainland only by a causeway, is an open target for a seaborne invading force. One of its residents is the former President of Ghana, Mr Kwame Nkrumah, who

sought asylum in the country led by his friend, President Toure, after being deposed in February, 1966. President Toure heads the country’s only political party, the militant, Left-wing Guinea Democratic Party (P.P.G.), and, despite the many reported plots and assassination attempts against him, his power has never been seriously threatened. When independence came in 1958, Guinea was the only country among France’s former West African territories to turn down President de Gaulle’s invitation to join the French-African community, and in recent years it has been to some extent isolated. With a population of between 3| million and 4 million, Guinea has a mainly agricultural economy; Its principal foreign exchange earnings come from the mining and export of bauxite, of which Guinea is the world’s main producer.