SPAAK ADMITS DEATHS’ WERE PROVOKED IN CONGO
While the American backers of the "humanitarian" operation in the Congo are still insisting that it was completely justified and that there was no alternative, if any of the white "hostages" were to be saved, the Belgian and British participants in the-grisly adventure have shifted their line somewhat,
In face of the mounting evidence of the savagery and bestiality of the forces under their command, they are beginning to admit that everything was not as noble as their imperialist propaganda at first claimed. For instance, the London Times [November 25], while claiming that the operation was both necessary and successful as a whole, felt forced to admit:
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"at the same time there is no doubt that the landings precipitated the shooting of an as yet uncertain number of hostages, men and women alike; the tragedy is not lessened because some such shooting had been foreseen as the possible price for the safety of the others."
The admission clearly implies that the sponsors of the "humanitarian" operation deliberately decided to sacrifice at least part of the hostages, This bolsters what the rebels say. No hostages would have been killed if the negotiations had been continued instead of being arbitrarily broken off by the American and Belgian imperial-~ ists.
Similar evidence is available from another authoritative source. In an interview granted to the Paris daily Le Monde [Decen~ ber 1}, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Paul-Henri. Spaak said: “The risk was either to arrive too late, or -~ and this is what happened to a certain degree -- to provoke the very drama we sought to prevent." In clearer language, Spaak admits that the "humanitarian" operation precipitated a number of deaths,
The imperialists are doing their utmost to cover up their guilt by pointing to the way in which the primitive Africans took the lives of some of the hostages. They remain silent about the behavior of the "humanitarian" paratroopers, the white mercenaries whose pay they guarantee, and the columns of Tshombe's killers, all of whom co- . ordinated their moves in accordance with the master plan worked out in Brussels and Washington, the real aim of which was to deal an overpowering military blow to the rebel government at Stanleyville,.
A newspaper as conservative as the London Sunday Times Ca weekly not to be confused with the daily Times] had this to offer from Derek Wilson, its Léopoldville correspondent [November 29]:
"The savagery of the Congolese has been nearly matched by the cold-blooded indiscriminate murder by Tshombe's South African and Rhodesian mercenaries during their week long push north from Kindu: to Stanleyville. oo
"With machine guns and hand grenades they massacred the population remaining in nearly every village they passed through, sparing neither women nor children. A French correspondent who advanced with the mercenary column told me. 'with those mercenaries it's racialism gone mad,! oe
"This week's Belgo-American operation has done precious little to help put down the rebellion -- incidentally revealed to be much more extensive than generally thought -- and Tshombe's chances of ending it reasonably and quickly are as hopeless as ever,"
In an editorial [November 28] Le Monde, while joining in con-
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demning the actions. of the rebels, did not neglect | to point icily to what the other side was-doing>::-
"The Stanleyville revolutionists do not have at their disposal the channels of publicity available to Mr. Tshombé, and Western public opinion being, it must bé. acknowledged, much more sensitive to the murder of one European. than ‘to’ twenty blacks, more is said about the atrocities committed by some bands of ' savages hopped up with’ drugs" than the cold-blooded repression which has been carried out for three days by the Katanga mercenaries and gendarmes, If it is true that.a government, no matter what kind, would feel forced to react to the odious _ tbiackmail with hostages, as did the Brussels — government, it is necessary to observe. Lever theless that the ‘humanitarian operation! announced by Mr. ‘Spaak degenerated into a> ‘ploody: affair in which black and white civilians have been selected as the” victims in this struggle that is both tribal, racial and political,’ a
Even in Belgium, where Spaak did ‘everything possible to cover up the blood under showers of roses for the "humanitarian" paratroopers.ag they paraded in Brussels, bits of the truth have appeared in. the press. ; Youth Slaughtered
‘The December 5 issue of La Gauche quotes Jacques Cordy, special correspondent of the conservative Brussels daily Soir, writ~— ing from Stanleyville:
“Nearby on de Gaulle avenue, the headquarters: of the' Youth of the MNC-Lumumba had been turned into a slaughterhouse. Twentyfive bodies, trickling blood, were piled on the. lawn, inside the building, against the cupboards, the dressers, :‘on'the desks, on the © lighted kitchen stove, everywhere. A fearful scene.
; They have just. been killed, ' the officer explained, 'They had shut. themselves in, hiding in all: the corners, But they madethe error of making a noise. One of our men came in. ‘They moved, He began shooting. Other soldiers came'to the rescue, It was a real massacre. They are all members of these ‘Youth! who were always raiding the town. . . !
"Deafening shots again crashed inside the headquarters. They were completing the horrible business, The bursts of shots spurted’flesh, blew open skulls. Coolly, some cameramen, who came from I> don't * know where, took pictures. All this was absolutely’ insupportable. In the evening a new fusillade -- a last rebel, hidden in the ceiling, had come down. He was killed. at. ONCE.
"The odious.unleashing of violence that in turn calls for violence started long ago in the Congo. ° It is impossible to see when and how it will be stopped." os ot