Algeria Before the United Nations

Since France is not willing to negotiate for an Algerian peace, the Algerian nationalists are calling on the United Nations for help, Abdelkader Chanderli declared last night. Speaking at the quincy House Forum on Africa on the subject "Algeria Before the U.N.", Chanderli stated that the Front of National Liberation (FLN) is urging the U.N. to encourage free elections in Algeria so that the six-year-old war with France can be ended.

Chanderli, permanent representative to the U.N. from the FLN, repeatedly stressed the need for self-determination in Algeria. Even DeGaulle, he said, had the political courage to admit that the Algerian people had the right to choose for themselves." De Gaulle insisted, however, that the Algerians must surrender before the terms of a self-determination policy could be discussed.

Algeria Has Not Lost

The Algerian nationalists rejected DeGaulle's proposal for negotiations under an Algerian flag of truce, Chanderli stated, because they have not lost the war. War, he said, can be stopped only by mutual settlement or by defeat of one party. "The nationalist strength is increasing every day," he emphasized, and Algeria could not be expected to capitulate merely in order to negotiate with the French.

In reply to the objection that there have already been several "free" elections in Algeria, and that in every case the Algerians have voted overwhelmingly in favor of the French, Chanderli declared that the elections have in reality been anything but free. According to the latest Algerian referendum, he said, 92 per cent of the people voted for France. Then, it would seem, only eight per cent of the Algerian population has been able to hold off the French army for six years--and yet that army is the largest ever employed in a colonial war.

When the army takes the voters to the polls in military trucks, marks those who have cast their vote with a stamp of ink, and even denies food to those who do not vote at the carefully controlled elections, there can certainly be no pretense of a free election, he declared.

U.S. Offers Little Aid

While the U.S. may be trying to help the Algerians win freedom--Chanderli cited scholarships raised by the NSA for Algerian students--there has been no concrete aid to Algeria from the U.S. government, he declared. The U.S., Chanderli asserted, is more interested in maintaining its role with the Soviet Union in world power politics than in helping the small nations of the world gain independence.

Meanwhile the Soviet Union is actually doing something concrete to help the Algerians. "The Russians are not giving me stories," Chanderli declared, "they are giving me food." He emphatically maintained that the FLN would utilize whatever aid they could get, whether American or Soviet.

Will Accept Any Aid

"We are now using mortars and heavy artillery; we may need tanks, planes and bombs. We will take military aid from anyone who offers it." Even Red China.

But Chanderli, who is slated to become Minister of Education in the FLN government, assured the audience that Algeria would not incur obligations to either the Communists or the Free World. "We can't afford to be in debt," he said. "You can have debts only if you're rich." The Soviets do not insist upon commitment, he asserted. They offer concrete aid to the people and then collect the natural good will.