O.A.U. oil plan

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 9

O.A.U. oil plan

NZPA-Reuter Dar-es-Salaam

The Organisation of African Unity has prepared a plan aimed at crippling South Africa’s industrial and military sectors by cutting off oil supplies, informed sources said.

They said the O.A.U.’s sanctions committee, meeting in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha last week, listed 12 measures to be taken against South Africa.

The list will be presented to the O.A.U. Heads of State conference in Nairobi in June for approval, and will later form the basis for an African effort to secure a United Nations oil embargo. According to committee sources a key aim of the O.A.U. is to put pressure on Liberia to ban tankers flying its flag from South African ports. A recent study showed that one-third of ’the tankers which carried oil to South Africa last year were Liber-ian-registered. The proposals included measures to punish oil companies and shipping lines found to be providing oil to South Africa, the sources said. The committee sources said that the plan would require African countries to close their ports to any ship which visited South Africa. It would also call on African oil-producing States to cease business with any oil company found to be dealing with Pretoria.

The main African oil producers — Algeria, Angola, Libya and Nigeria — were represented at the meeting as were Gabon. Ghana, Sierra Leone. Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.’