Congo: Confederation Hopes

Back from the successful conference of rival Congo political leaders on the island of Madagascar, Albert Kalonji, the boss of South Kasai province, waved his favorite fetish stick and cried: "The crisis is definitely over. Everybody is satisfied." Congo President Joseph Kasavubu staged a military parade and called a national holiday to celebrate. From the cheerful tone taken by the assorted Congolese leaders, peace and maybe even civilization seemed just around the corner.

The conferees at Madagascar (now officially the Malagasy Republic) called for division of the Congo into autonomous states along tribal lines—which was what most Congolese wanted all the time.

Each state would have its own gendarmes and control its internal affairs. But all dealings with other nations and the outside world will be under control of the central government, headed by pro-Western President Joseph Kasavubu. All that remained' to be worked out was the hardest part: the details and boundary lines for the loosely joined "Confederation of Congo States.'' So many tribal leaders popped up demanding local autonomy that the number of self-declared "states"' jumped to twelve last week (see map), may go as high as 40.

In or Out. The chief problem among the local leaders is Stanleyville's pro-Communist boss and Patrice Lumumba's heir, Antoine Gizenga, who nervously decided to go to Madagascar, then obeyed direct Russian orders to stay home. But Gizenga's empire is shrinking; last week part of it got chopped off into the next state of Maniema. Gizenga's home ground is Leopoldville, and he does not even speak the common Stanleyville tongue, Swahili.

Hope now was that Gizenga would get in on the federation lest he lose even the provincial power he currently holds.

Still another tough man to deal with is Belgian-backed Moise Tshombe, who emerged from the Madagascar conference as the Congo's strongest man. But he must open his purse strings in copper-rich Katanga province if federation is to get afloat. Said Tshombe with a smile: "The others have five-sixths of the Congo's land. I have five-sixths of the Congo's money. I am willing to negotiate." Basic Dispute. And while the Congolese settled among themselves, there was still their basic dispute with the U.N.

force. India's Rajeshwar Dayal, the U.N.

head man in the Congo, who is mistrusted by virtually every Congolese politician, was back in Manhattan for consultations last week, and with him out of the way things noticeably improved. His temporary replacement, the Sudan's affable Mekki Abbas, made a point of consulting Kasavubu at every move. As a result, the first of 4,700 Indian U.N. troops arrived without incident—though Kasavubu had loudly protested the decision to send them. Said one Congolese: "Mr. Abbas has restored in days the good feeling it took Mr. Dayal months to destroy."