FACT AND FICTION IN THE CONGO

...Among his books are "Africa Today and Tomorrow," "The Dilemma of South Africa," and "Everyman's Africa...

...It is against this background that African accusations, often extravagant and irrational, must be seen...

...He therefore heads the legitimate Congo government...

...Outside the country, Tshombe was known as the man who had tried to dismember the Congo in defiance of the United Nations...

...It is a fact that Moise Tshombe was constitutionally appointed Prime Minister of the Congo by President Joseph Kasavubu last July...

...Moreover, it is a tragedy that all the reports of the paratroop action have stressed its objective as the rescue of white residents...

...An Africa which is forced to turn to the Communists will destroy all hope of bringing its people into Twentieth Century economic society...

...This was true of much that took place in the months before the Belgian-American airborne mission rescued white hostages in late November...

...The Central Intelligence Agency, which had lavishly supported Adoula up to the moment of his resignation, paid Cuban exiles to fly the planes...

...Nor can the tragedy of the Congo be ended by military means...

...The path to renewed confidence lies not in condemnation, nor in recrimination, nor in patronizing excuses...

...Having been refused permission to attend the Cairo conference of non-aligned nations, and rebuffed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in his request for help from African troops, Tshombe turned to the United States, Belgium, and mercenary soldiers for military aid...

...And that solution can be found and implemented only by Africans...

...The West has suffered a serious diplomatic and political defeat in its African relations...

...It is basically a political problem which demands a political solution...

...Africans have been particularly sensitive about the Congo, partly because it is so often used, as Liberia was, as an example of African inability to govern itself...

...If the Americans and Belgians were determined to support the Tshombe government and to protect their nationals at the same time, surely the moment for evacuation was last August...

...The Americans provided transport planes...

...It would be inverted racialism to apply a double standard to the irrational, semi-hysterical African statements of the past weeks, just as it is myopic chauvinism to ignore the causes of African anti-American feelings...

...But governments can act in a manner which is constitutionally justified and at the same time politically disastrous...

...The Security Council adopted a compromise resolution calling for a cease-fire, the end of all foreign intervention, the withdrawal of foreign mercenaries, and summoning the OAU to continue its efforts to achieve a "national reconciliation" in the Congo...

...It seemed the United States and Belgium were terrified during those months that by refusing aid to Tshombe they would be opening the door for the Chinese Communists to seize control of the Congo...

...the Africans believe that the parley was broken off to allow the pre-determined para-troop operation to take place...

...ca...

...What neither government seems to have recognized was the depth of hatred felt by Africans for Tshombe...

...It failed to secure reconciliation between Tshombe's government and the rebels...

...Fact and Fiction in the Congo by JOHN HATCH The most dangerous reality to emerge from the Congo tragedy is the rapidly widening chasm of misunderstanding between the developed Western white nations and black AfriJOHN HATCH is the Commonwealth correspondent in Africa for the New Statesman...

...It is now the primary responsibility of the OAU...

...He is the former head of the Commonwealth department of the British Labor Party and has lectured at Glasgow University and University College in Sierra Leone...

...it can be found only through an understanding of the emotions which influence African reactions...

...But the resolution merely defers the issue, for the OAU has so far shown itself unable to achieve mediation, while Tshombe knows that if he dismisses his mercenaries the military situation will decline to last year's chaos...

...For to Africa, it appears that America and Belgium are supporting a government which survives only through the use of white supremacist soldiers • whose ambition is to kill Africans and be paid for it...

...For the West to become permanently alienated from Africa would leave a massive chasm out of which international conflict would certainly arise...

...Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold...

...He immediately had to face the rebellions which his predecessor, Cyrille Adoula, had been unable to suppress, and with an army rapidly disintegrating...

...Young countries are liable to be insecure and hypersensitive towards criticism and intervention—as Americans, if they remember their own early history, should understand...

...He is now in the United States, setting up an African program at Texas Southern University...

...Angry accusations have substituted for reason and understanding...

...The tragedy of misunderstanding remains...

...Yet they must have been aware that their policy had contributed to this jeopardy and that the rescue operation, humanitarian as it was meant to be, would have military and diplomatic consequences...

...The action of two white governments, in support of a regime using white mercenaries, for the succor of white hostages provides too easy a rationale for suspicions of racial discrimination...

...partly because they have felt the frustration of helplessness towards its desperate writhings for nationhood...

...He also made the conciliatory gesture of releasing political prisoners, including Patrice Lumumba's heir, Antoine Gizenga, and tried to negotiate with members of the rebel Con-seil National de Liberation...

...when the almost universal hostility of African leaders to Tshombe is recalled...

...Ambassador to Kenya, Thomas Kanza, rebel "Foreign Minister," and Kenyatta may never be known...

...In the highly emotional atmosphere of the past few months, spokesmen for neither side have demonstrated any concern to visualize the situation from the other's viewpoint...

...If this spate of mutual recrimination continues, or if the gulf of misapprehension is not quickly bridged, both Africa and the West will be the losers...

...He had also reactivated his hated Katangese gendarmerie, recruited white soldiers from Southern Rhodesia, South Africa, and the Portuguese colonies, and secured help from former Belgian colonists...

...In this explosive, emotive situation it is essential to examine events objectively in order to sift fact from fiction, discover the causes of misunderstanding, and enable policy to move from negative to positive paths...

...Inside the Congo he represented a tribal grouping bitterly opposed by the Stanleyville area and several other regions...

...So the decision of the American and Belgian governments to aid Tshombe was bound to provoke intense hostility from Africans inside and outside the Congq...

...The truth of the negotiations held by William Attwood, U.S...

...As leader of a legitimate government he was entitled to ask for aid wherever he could find it...

...One member joined his government...

...The American side construed the rebel position as an ultimatum to halt the advance of Tshombe's army or suffer a massacre of hostages...

...At no time since the process of decolonization began ten years ago have Africans felt so deeply the sensation of white discrimination, nor Westerners experienced such fear of black racialism...

...But when the rebel forces, under mounting pressure from a government army now stiffened by white mercenaries, adopted the inexcusable policy of trying to use their power over white residents as a bargaining factor, Ken-yatta's commission seemed the last channel of negotiation...

...The African leaders who comprise this body will need both the sympathetic understanding and the material resources of the West if they are to prevent the Congo from becoming an endemic infection endangering the life of international society...

...the Belgians increased the military training they were already providing for the government's army...

...He was believed to have been collaborating with Southern Rhodesia's former Prime Minister, Roy Welensky, Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar, and South Africa's Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, in the southern counter-revolution against African nationalism...

...And if color is allowed to become identified with or inspire political attitudes, the world will find itself on the headlong plunge toward racial war...

...There is no immediate danger of the Communists taking over, for there are only a handful of Chinese advisers in the area and the West alone possesses the resources capable of providing the Congo with national foundations...

...But it should be recognized that there is a legacy of white colonialism, that fear of "neo-colonial" resurrection is widespread, and that anti-Westernism can quickly develop if these fears appear justified...

...Thus the urgent need is to rebuild the bridges between Africans and the West in the short time before the next crisis can be expected...

...To Africans it appeared that the paratroop operation was p'art of the military plan to help Tshombe capture Stanleyville—and objectively it did just that...

...The American and Belgian governments could quote constitutional precedent in providing help to a government which they recognized diplomatically...

...When one recognizes that this is considered a civil war, with many Congolese refusing to accept Tshombe's (or Kasavubu's) legitimacy...

...It seemed more than probable that this hostility would be vented on innocent white residents of the Congo, just as many Belgians suffered at the time this troubled nation became independent in 1960...

...The cardinal element provoking divisive passions between the West and Africa is race...

...The fear of "neo-colonialism" and the firm conviction of a white supremacist conspiracy seem vindicated by everything which has happened over the past five years of Congo history...

...It is untrue that black racialism or anti-white hostility has grown to such proportions as to make this impossible...

...Once the American and Belgian governments were faced with a situation in which thousands of their nationals were in extreme jeopardy, they had to try to evacuate them with as little loss of life as possible...

...Tshombe also was considered responsible for the deaths of Lumumba and U.N...

...when, above all, it is remembered that most Africans believe that a widespread conspiracy exists among South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, and Portugal, backed by Western capitalism, to preserve southern Africa for white supremacy — then it becomes easier to understand the extent of African fury against the airborne operation...

...By September the African leaders of the OAU had set up a ten-nation commission under Jomo Kenyatta in an effort to mediate in the Congo...