Bella promised to continue sending arms to the Congolese freedom fighters, The following is a translation of this part of his speech as published in the Mareh 9 issue of the Algiers daily Le Peuple.]
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I would like to say to the sister representing the Portuguese council, the representative of Palestine, and to the sister representing the Congo, how ready our country, our regime, has been since independence to affirm its entire, complete, irreversible solidarity with all the freedom movements, with our brothers who are battling against the Salazar dictatorship, in the Congo against the infamy that imperialism is attempting to carry out in that country. Wherever peoples are struggling, we have been ready since independence.to send them aid without fail.
I would also like to say that since Algeria won her independence, no country -- bearing in mind our capacities -- has affirmed its solidarity with those who are struggling as much as we have.
~Sa-
- We said what we thought about this at Addis Ababa and again when we met to study the problem of Palestine. We said it at the very: moment when imperialism was preparing its crime against Stanleyville. In the plaza of the Martyrs we declared that American imperialism was mistaken, and that all the imperialists were mistaken if they thought that with Stanleyville everything was over,
On the contrary, everything was beginning. It was the same way when our plane was intercepted and the "five" were put in prison, A general in command of the Algiers zone told me on that November 22 that everything was over in Algeria. He added that it would also soon be over in Egypt where they were then preparing their crime, I said: "You are mistaken, You have arrested five Algerians, but there are 12,000,000 Algerians,"
Similarly in the Congo, nothing was finished with Stanleyville. The imperialists sent arms; we sent arms, and we will continue to send arms, We will always give arms to those who are struggling, or struggling for the same causes for which we battled here.
At this very moment, our planes are flying towards the Congo, transporting arms,
In the same way, we have solidarized and will continue to do so with our. brother democrats of Portugal who are fighting against the sinister Salazar. In the same way, we will assume all our responsibilities in the sacred battle of Palestine. We are not fight ing there against 2,000,000 Zionists; because we know ‘that it ia > American imperialism and all the imperialists who are confronting us and who are doing their utmost against the Arab world and who want a second South Africa to continue to exist there,