Minneapolis spokesman., 1962-04-13

that "all African heads of state"
were interested in African unity,
as were African people generally. |
The Casablanca Group, he said,
was ready now to study practical
ways for economic and cultural
reapprochement." The Cairo con-
ference hopes to examine reports
concerning inter-African economic
cooperation, the gradual lowering
Of customs tariffs, cultural ex-
changes and the ultimate abolition
Of frontiers.
TWO PREVIOUS meetings of
the Monrovia Group, Conferences
Of African and Malagasy Heads of
State, were boycotted by the Cas-
ablanca powers. They refused to
attend the first meeting, held May
S-13, in Monrovia, charging that
the meeting had not taken a strong
enough stand regarding the death
or Patrice Lumumba. Also, there
was a charge that the conference
had been sponsored by interests
outside of the African continent.
This charge was denied immediate
ly by the Monrovia Group.
A second conference Of the
Monrovia countries, held in Janu-
ary at Lagos, was boycotted by
the Casablanca powers when the
Monrovia Group decided not to
recognize the Algerian Provisional
Government as an independent
state at the meeting .. The Casa
blanca Group consists Of Ghana,
Guinea, Mali, the United Arab
Republic (Egypt), and Morocco.
Members of the Monrovia Group
include Liberia, Nigeria, the Ivory
Coast, Senegal, the Niger Repub-
lie, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Ethi-
opia, Mauritania, Congo (Brazza-
ville), Togo, the Sudan, Gabon,
Republic of Tchad, Libya, Central
African Republic, Cameroun Re-
public, Dahomey, the Volta Repub-
lie, and the Malagasy Republic.
IN BANGUI, Central African
Republic, a three-day conference
of II African and Malagasy heads
of state ended with a decision to
nominate Mauritania for the next
vacancy on the United Nations
Security Council. The conference
also adopted resolutions on insur-
ance, industrial development, the
creation Of an economic committee
Of a franc zone and the setting
up Of a mutual shipping line.
President Ahmadoo Ahidjo of
Cameroun, who was elected the
new president Of the Afro -Malag-
asy Union, read a communique
after the closing session. The Un-
ion, also referred to as the "Brazz-
aville Group" promised help to
African countries not yet inde-
pendent and stressed the necessity
for contracts with other members
Of the Monrovia Group.
President Kwame Nkrumah of
Ghana has disclosed that the Pre-
ventive Detention Act would be
amended to stop the automatic re-
lease Of detainees after the five
year period. A detainee who, after
his release, continued the conduct
which first sent him to detention
would be detained again for 20
years. The four-year-old Ghana
detention act Is a measure under
which Ghanian suspects (political
detainees) could be imprisoned
without trial for an initial period
Of five years.
This announcement by President
Nkrumah discarded the rumor that
there would soon be a reprieve forI
some Of the more than 800 political
detainees who have been in deten- |
ton since the middle of Novem-
ber, 1858. It is estimated that
there are about 4So detainees, in
cluding seven women. Some esti-
mates have run even higher.
SPEAKING AT a luncheon in
Kumasi, where he declared that
ancient town the second city of
Ghana, DR.. Nkrumah later laid
the foundation stone Of the $1,400,-
900 City Hotel. At the ceremony
marking the occasion, he declared
that in the future, if foreign priv
ate enterprises decided to sell |
some Of their shares or sell out
SOAAPASbCAJJ ShCJ "Ou4u hdNC "
give the Ghana government "the
first option" to buy such shares.
THREE ALLEGEDLY outspok-
en- critics Of the Congolese govern
ment at Leopoldville have been ar
rested by the Congo's state police.
They are Gabriel Makoso, editor !
in-chief of the independent news
paper Courier dAfrique; Andre
Bobolilko, a leader Of the Congol- ]
ese Workers union; and Michel |
Nuzi, leader Of the government
sponsored Congolese youth move
ment.
Agence Congolese Presse (ACP)
the official news agency, said that
Makoso's newspaper and Boboliko's
trade union were patronized by
Belgian Catholic circles. Makoso