Evening star., 1961-11-27
Reality and the Conuo

Inere is good reason to look with
miSgiving on the latest move by the
United Nations Security Council to try
to establish law, order, unity and
stability in the turbulent and incredibly
uneducated Congo Republic. For this
move, which our Government has sup
ported with its fingers crossed, and with
an obvious lack of enthusiasm, is aimed
solely against, President TShombe'S
Secessionist regime at Elisabethville in
iKatanga Province, which is in fact not
only the richest, but also the most
orderly part of the tormented former
Belgian colony.
Yet this is the target, and this alone,
Of the utterly -unrealistic Afro-Asian
resolution adopted the other day by the
Security Council, with Britain and
France UNDERSTANDABLE abStaining, but
with the United States unhappily joining
the Soviet Union in voting aye. What the
resolution demands is that the SeparatiSt
KatanganeSe activities "cease forth
with" and it goes on to authorize the
use of U. N. armed force, if necessary, to
make Mr.. TShombe deport all the
foreign mercenaries" military, para
military, technical, political and eco
nomic adviserS-who allegedly are
responsible for maintaining his SeceS-
SioniSt rule
Curiously, however, the Afro-Asian
sponsors Of this measure seem to have
accepted with remarkably non-neutral
equanimity the Kremlin's thumbs-down
reaction to an effort by Adlai Stevenson,
chief of our U. N. delegation, to make
their resolution broad enough to include
authorization of action against the
seceSSioniSt program Of Eastern Prov
tnce. This is program headed by
Antoine Gizenga, who has given more
than few sinister evidences Of being
decidedly pro-Soviet, If not actually and
actively full-fledged agent and puppet
of the Kremlin. Nevertheless, up to now
at least, the thinking prevalent in our
State Department appears to have
favored priority action against Katanga
for two main reasons, among others:
,(D To promote the economic viapility of
the near-chaotic CongoleSe Republic
and (2) to lay the groundwork for
similar use of force, if needed, against
the Gizenga setup.
Well, one wonders whether this
thinking is still valid, If it ever was,
economically politically, militarily or
otherwise. After all, why should the U. NJ,
with American aye-Saying, concentrate
its efforts against pro-Western Mr..
Tshombe and ignore the altogether SuS-
pect operations of the Kremlin- backed
Gizenga regime ?IWhy has Mr. Steven
son, acting undoubtedly on instructions
from Washington, voted as he has
against the KatanganeSe government?
That government, incidentally, is sup
ported by troops whose discipline puts
to shame the shocking mutiny-prone,
atrocity-guilty army of the Central
Government of the Congo. In the
circumstances, one can hardly fail to
keep on asking why we have voted as we
have in the Security Council.
Mr.. Stevenson has said that we have
done so, with the greatest reluctance"
largely because we did not want
CongoleSe Foreign Minister Bomboko to
return to Leopoldville "empty-handed." "
But this seems to us to be decidedly
poor excuse for our vote, especially in
view of the Soviet rejection of our pro-
posal to have the U. N. promote peaceful
negotiations between Mr.. Tshombe and
the Kasavubu-Adoula regime for "con-
federation" or federation" (the Sc
mantle distinction between the words
means little in land as tribally divided
and as primitive as the Congo). Yet, II
such negotiations were started, they
might lead to relationships that coulc
bring about genuine stability in this
enormously troubled and volatile Afri.