21738 Nov. 26—Dec. 3, 1966
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21738 KEESING'S CONTEMPORARY ARCHIVES Nov. 26—Dec. 3, 1966 (c) Mr. M. C. Chagla (Education) was appointed External B. ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY.—Fourth Affairs Minister ; and (d) Mr. Fakhruddin Ahmed became Assembly of Heads of State and Government. - Dispute Education Minister. between Ghana and Guinea. Mr. Chavan (53) was Chief Minister of Bombay in 1956-60 and The fourth Assembly of the Heads of State and Government Chief Minister of Maharashtra in 1960-62, and succeeded Mr. of the member-States of the Organization of African Unity Krishna Menon as Defence Minister in November 1962, during the (O.A.U.) took place in Addis Ababa on Nov. 5-9. It was border oonfliot with China. Sardar Swaran Singh (69) entered the preceded by a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Cabinet in 1952, and held a succession of Ministries before becoming External Affairs Minister in 1964. Mr. Chagla (66), a former Chief O.A.U., but this meeting, as well as the Assembly itself, was Justice of the Bombay High Court, was Ambassador in Washington largely overshadowed by a dispute caused by the Government in 1958-62 and High Commissioner in London in 1962-63, and of Ghana in intercepting and detaining the Guinean mission entered the Cabinet as Education Minister in 1963. He is the first to the O.A.U. Moslem to hold the post Of External Affairs Minister. The Ghana-Guinea Dispute. While the Indian press strongly criticized Mrs. Gandhi for her alleged vacillation over the Cabinet changes, the Prime On Oct. 29 the Ghanaian authorities removed from a Pan Minister herself deprecated Mr. Nanda's allegations in state American Airways airliner (calling at Accra on a scheduled ments which she made in the Lok Sabha on Nov. 10 and in flight from Conakry to Lagos) the four members of the Guinean the Rqjya Sabha on Nov. 17. delegation to the O.A.U. conference, including Dr. Louis Lansana Beavogui (the Foreign Minister of Guinea) and 15 . Mrs. Gandhi told the Lok Sabha that she had tiled to co-operate Guinean students travelling to Lagos, and detained all 19 at with Mr. Nanda to the " utmost of my ability " and expressed regret " that Mr. Nanda had the impression I was not giving him an Army camp. The Ghanaian Government announced the co-operation," adding : " It may be that I did not agree with same day that the detained Guineans would not be released some of the things at which I had to took in a larger perspective." unless the Guinean Government released those Ghanaians who In reply to Opposition members she stated that it was the Home were " illegally detained " in Guinea. Minister who was responsible for policy-making and that it was The Accra statement said that Ghana had been forced to take for him to support or not to support any suggestions made by the this action " to seek redress from a country which has shown a Home Secretary. She admitted that Mr. Nanda had asked for the total disregard for normal international behaviour." Admitting removal of the Home Secretary, but added: " I have to look that under normal circumstances the detentions would have been after the larger interests in considering this matter and I gave contrary to diplomatic norms, the statement referred to Guinea's my reasons to the Home Minister. Personally it has been a matter " consistently hostile " attitude and its threats to invade Ghana of painful parting with a trusted colleague whose hard work and in order to restore Dr. Nkrumah to power [see 21138 A ; page 21275]. integrity will be appreciated by all." It was taken for granted, Mrs. Gandhi continued, that she had accepted Mr. Nanda's resig General Ankrah, the Head of the Military Government of Ghana, nation because of the happenings in Delhi, but that was not so, said at a press conference on Oct. 31 that the Guineans would not and " it is not at all my intention to blame Mr. Nanda for that." be released until President Sekou Toure " comes to reason and releases those Ghanaians whom he is holding against their will Intervening in the Rajya Sabha debate, Mrs. Gandhi, speaking in Conakry." Among the " undiplomatic acts" which he alleged on the anti-cow-slaughter agitation, said that it was " very had been committed by the Government of Guinea were a raid strange" that concern for " mother cow " came every time only on the Ghanaian Embassy in Conakry in February; permission on the eve of a general election. Protection of the cow, she said, given to the head of Dr. Nkmmah's security guards, Mr. Ambrose was a matter for the States, and she asked those who were so Tankey, to sign cheques on Embassy accounts; the removal of much oonoerned about the cow and had the funds " to organize the Ghanaian Ambassador and his wife from an aircraft, and their tremendous demonstrations and to bring people from the far-off arrest; and the training of Ghanaians for the overthrow of the corners of India," to divert at least some of those funds to look new regime and the restoration of Dr. Nkrumah to power. after the drought-stricken areas of the U.P. and Bihar. "The slogan of saving ' mother cow,' " she added, " rings a little hollow When the Ghanaian action against the Guinean delegation unless those who raise it do something to save the cattle." became known in Conakry, the Government of Guinea called for demonstrations against the " machinations of American Mr. Chavan, in bis first major speech as Home Minister on imperialism and its puppets in Accra" ; Radio Conakry Nov. 17 in the Rajya Sabha, rejected the demand made by announced on Oct. 80 that the U.S. Ambassador in Conakry, Opposition spokesmen on the previous day for a judicial Mr. Robinson Mcllvaine, had been placed under house-arrest inquiry into the violent incidents outside Parliament House because the Guinean Government held the U.S. Government on Nov. 7. Mr. Chavan said sueh an inquiry was " neither " entirely responsible for the seizure of its delegation in Accra." practicable nor desirable " and appealed to all political parties A communique issued by the ruling Parti ddmocratique de Guinie to " eschew all agitations likely to lead to violence." (P.D.G.) said that the U.S. Government must "fulfil its The Shankaracharya Niranjan Tirath, high priest of the obligations by carrying the Guinean delegation to Addis Ababa famous Temple of Purl (Orissa) and one of the most respected before the opening of the session." Hindu religions leaders, began an indefinite fast in a Delhi temple on Nov. 21 in support of a ban on cow slaughter. He The U.S. State Department strongly protested on the same was arrested! early the following day by Mr. Chavan's orders day against the restriction imposed upon Mr. Mcllvaine ; and flown to Pondicherry for detention under the Emergency demanded his immediate release and that of a local official of Regulations. Another religious leader who had threatened to Pan American Airways who had been similarly restricted ; begin a fast, Mr. Prabhudutt Brahmachari, was also arrested. and denied that either the U.S. Government or Pan American The Shankaracharya Niranjan Tirath was, however, released Airways were in any way responsible for the incident. Mr. on Nov. 28 and flown back to Puri ; he announced that he Mcllvaine was released from restriction on Oct. 31, but the was continuing his fast, but on Dec. 1 agreed to end it the American Embassy in Conakry was attacked the same day by following day.—{The Hindu, Madras - The Statesman, Calcutta about 50,000 demonstrators led by youth leaders and members • Indian High Commissioner's Office, London - Times - of the militia of the P.D.G. The U.S. Government sent a Guardian) (Prev. rep. Cabinet, 21204 A.) strong protest against the attack. On Nov. 2 Mr. Edward M. Korry, the U.S. Ambassador to A. UNITED STATES. — Adherence to Florence Ethiopia, handed to M. Diallo TeUi, the Secretary-General of Agreement on Duty-free Importation of Educational the O.A.U., a Note expressing U.S. disapproval of Ghana's and Cultural Material. detention of the 19 Guineans as " contrary to accepted inter The U.S. Ambassador at the United Nations, Mr. Goldberg, national practice," but at the same time repeating the U.S. deposited on Nov. 2 the U.S. ratification of the international protest over Guinea's reprisals against the American Embassy convention on the duty-free importation of educational, in Conakry. scientific, and cultural materials which had been concluded 16 The Guinean Government on Nov. 8 nevertheless expelled years earlier at Florence—the " Florence Agreement " of 1950, 64 American Peace Corps volunteers and eight staff members, worked out under the auspices of the U.N. Educational, as well as U.S. Information Service personnel, and closed Scientific, and Cultural Organization [see 11289 E ; 10935 A]. Conakry airport to Pan American Airways. Implementing legislation had been signed on Oct. 14 by Previously the Government of Ghana had requested the President Johnson. O.A.U. to include in the agenda for the Assembly the question The Florence Agreement provides for the duty-free treatment of about 30 students and 70 officials allegedly detained in of six broad categories of educational, scientific, and cultural Conakry against their will. The officials were those who had materials : (1) books, publications, and documents ; (2) works gone to Guinea with ex-President Nkrumah after his return of art and collectors' items ; (S) visual and auditory materials ; from Communist China [see page 21275], while the students (4) scientific instruments and apparatus ; (5) articles for the had originally intended to aid the former President to return to blind ; (6) exhibition materials.—(U.S.