U.N. body may go to Lisbon

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33750, 24 January 1975, Page 13

U.N. body may go to Lisbon

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, January 23. The United Nations Decolonisation Committee, which for years pilloried Portugal’s African policies will probably hold a series of meetings in Lisbon in April or May, according to informed sources in New York.

The meetings, unthinkable less than a year ago, would mark a further stage in the reconciliation between the United Nations and Portugal since the coup d’etat in that country in April of last year and the subsequent decolonisation of her African territories. The sources say that Portugal has extended an invitation to the committee to visit Lisbon, and that plans for the meeting there will probably be discussed when the committee of 24 nations holds its first meeting of 1975 on Thursday of next week. The Tanzanian Ambassador (Mr Salim A. Salim) is expected to be re-elected chairman of the committee, a post he has held , for each of the last three years.

In addition to visiting Portugal, the committee is likely to hold a series of meetings in African capitals, probably including Lusaka and Dar-Es-Salaam. The members of the committee are: Afganistan, Australia, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Congo, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Mali, Sierra Leone, Soviet Union, Syria, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, and Jugoslavia. Cuba joined this committee this year, replacing Venezuela. The United Nations Secretary-General (Dr Kurt Waldhe'm) is expected to send a senior representative to Luanda next week to attend the installation of Angola’s new provisional government on Friday. Comprising representatives of Portugal and of the territory’s three African “liberation” movements, will hold office until Angola attains independence on November 11.