September 1967 - IVORY COAST - GUINEA
Dispute arising out of Detention of Guinean Foreign Minister and U.N. Delegate by
Ivory Coast Authorities.
Radio Conakry announced on June 29 that M. Louis Lansana Beavogui, the Guinean
Foreign Minister, and Mr. Achkar Marof, Guinea's permanent representative at the
United Nations, had been detained on June 26 at Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast,
after the diversion of the K.L.M. aircraft in which they had been returning from the U.N.
General Assembly session on the Middle East.
M. Mathieu Ekra, the Ivory Coast Minister of Information, officially announcing the
detention of the two men on June 30, stated that this measure had been taken because of
the detention "under inhuman conditions" in Conakry for the last two years of M.
Francois Kamano, a high official of the Ivory Coast, and also because of the Guinean
seizure on Feb. 19, 1967, of the Ivory Coast trawler Ker-Isper and its crew of 22, who
had been accused of having attempted to abduct Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the former
President of Ghana, in exile in Guinea. He added that the Guineans would be kept in
detention until the Ivory Coast citizens detained in Guinea were set free.
President Sekou Toure of Guinea declared at the same time that the political
responsibility for the incident lay with the United Nations, and the civil responsibility
with the Netherlands Government, as the principal shareholders in K.L.M.; he alleged
that the crew of the K.L.M. aircraft had diverted it in complicity with the Ivory Coast
authorities. The Netherlands diplomatic representative in Conakry and all members of the
K.L.M. staff in Guinea were placed under house arrest. K.L.M. stated, however, that the
aircraft had landed at Abidjan owing to bad weather. As regards M. Kamano's arrest,
President Sekou Toure added that there was no analogy with the detention of the
Guineans, as M. Kamano had, he alleged, been involved in a murder plot against the
Guinean regime allegedly instigated by President Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast.
At the United Nations, the Foreign Ministers of Algeria, Mali, and Mauritania requested
U Thant on June 30 to intervene in order to obtain the release of the Guineans. M. Arsene
Assouan Usher, Foreign Minister of the Ivory Coast, explained in New York on July 3
that the Ivory Coast authorities considered the detention of M. Lansana Beavogui and M.
Achkar Marof to be the only means of forcing the Guinean Government to release the
Ivory Coast citizens detained in Guinea without justification.
After President Sekou Toure had indicated on July 7 that he would accept mediation by
Liberia in the dispute with the Ivory Coast, and that he might even be prepared to meet
President Houphouet-Boigny, M. Philippe Yace, President of the National Assembly of
the Ivory Coast, declared on July 10 that his Government accepted the proposal for a
meeting between the two Presidents in the presence of Presidents Tubman (Liberia),
Diori (Niger), and Keita (Mali). Meanwhile U Thant had sent to Conakry Dr. Jose RolzBennett (U.N. Under-Secretary for Special Political Affairs) on a "good offices" mission
to settle the dispute.
The Ivory Coast Government, however, continued to insist on the release by Guinea of
M. Kamano and the trawler crew as a condition for the release of the Guinean Foreign
Minister and the U.N. delegate. In a letter handed on July 28 to M. Simeon Ake, the
Ivory Coast delegate at the U.N., U Thant refused to connect the detention of the two
Guineans with that of Ivory Coast civilians in Guinea, pointing out that the Guineans
should be released unconditionally in terms of international conventions, in particular the
Vienna Convention on diplomatic privileges and immunities. The Ivory Coast
Government's rejection of this request was handed to U Thant by M. Ake on Aug. 11.
Reporting to the security Council on Aug. 15, U Thant declared that if the Ivory Coast
did not release tire two Guineans he would have to consider other means to remedy a
situation which violated the principles of diplomatic immunity.
It was disclosed in New York the same day that Guinea had decided to continue, for the
time being, to take part in the work of the principal organs of the U.N. (such as the
General Assembly and the security Council), but to suspend all participation in the work
of the U.N. Specialized Agencies until the liberation of the Guinean delegation detained
in the Ivory Coast.
The following day (Aug. 16) Guinea requested that its dispute with the Ivory Coast
should be submitted to the security Council and to tire next session of the U.N. General
Assembly. No agreement on a possible solution of the dispute was reached during a
"courtesy visit" paid to U Thant by President Houphouet-Boigny on Aug. 23.--(Le
Monde, Paris - Times Guardian - U.N. Information Centre, London)