The Under Secretary recommends that the statement be released early next
week.
Enclosure
Draft Presidential Statement On Relief In Nigerian Civil
War
Washington,
undated
[Page 2]
PROPOSED PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT ON RELIEF IN NIGERIAN
CIVIL WAR
I must report with deepest regret a serious setback to a vigorous and
concerted international effort to expand the flow of relief to the
suffering civilian victims of the Nigerian Civil War.
As I pledged shortly after taking office, this Government has
dedicated both generous contributions and extraordinary diplomatic
activity to relieve the human anguish and suffering in this tragic
conflict. It was in this spirit that we supported the recent
proposal of the International Committee of the Red Cross for a
program of daylight relief flights into Biafran-held territory. Such
flights would have allowed the resumption of Red Cross relief which
had been suspended since June 30 when the Federal Military
Government of Nigeria, because of the scrambling at night of arms
flights and relief flights, declared that it would no longer permit
night flights across its territory.
On September 13 the ICRC concluded
an agreement with the Government of Nigeria allowing an
internationally-inspected and militarily-inviolable relief airlift
during
[Page 3]
daylight hours
for an experimental period with the prospect of renewal. The Biafran
authorities refused, however, to accept such flights—principally on
the grounds that they could not rely on either the Red Cross or the
Federal Government to assure that the daylight airlift would not be
violated by a surprise attack on the Biafran airfield, the vital
terminus for their arms supply. They asked instead that they be
given third-party assurances as to the good faith of the Federal
Government of Nigeria.
To meet this concern, the Government of the United States at my
direction took the following steps:
(1) We sought and received the solemn assurance of the Federal
Government of Nigeria that it would see to it that no hostile
military action would be taken against the ICRC relief air-lift.
(2) After consultation with us, the Government of Canada agreed to
offer Canadian soldiers as impartial observers to accompany ICRC aircraft on their relief
flights.
[Page 4]
(3) Our relief coordinator, Ambassador C. Clyde Ferguson, went
personally to West Africa to give the Biafrans the specific
assurance of the United States that we accepted as made in good
faith the solemn pledge of the Government of Nigeria as to the
inviolability of the ICRC daylight
relief flights.
On October 24, 1969, the Biafran authorities formally rejected this
assurance.
The result is tragic. We firmly believe that the ICRC proposal is realistic and
reasonable. We consider that the Federal Military Government of
Nigeria, in agreeing to the ICRC
proposal, acted in full accord with its humanitarian
responsibilities. We believe that the integrity of the ICRC, the safeguards incorporated in
the ICRC relief program, and the
assurances of the United States Government should adequately satisfy
the legitimate security concerns of the Biafran authorities.
