`Absurd' propaganda on use of relief supplies to Biafra

FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
PROPAGANDA has never played such a primordial role in warfare since the days of Dr. Goebbels as it is playing in the Nigeria-Biafra conflict, says a statement issued last week from the Geneva headquarters of Joint Church Aid.
"To attack humanitarian agencies which have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the relief of starving refugees on both sides of a conflict presenting neither political nor economic interest to them is both in bad taste and absurd." the statement says.
"Because of its very absurdity, this libel is frequently left unanswered. And so it goes on recurring at regular intervals until the most unlikely publications and people are found believing it — or at least passing it on.
"In a recent letter published by a leading Canadian newspaper, for example, it was reported that both Church and Red Cross relief to Biafra served as a screen for collecting military intelligence. Even more incredibly, the writer continues 'In fact, Caritas admitted openly that they provide space for rebel armaments in their relief planes.'
`RIDICULOUS' "The Caritas general secretary. Mgr. Carlo Bayer, answered this old allegation some time ago. He said: 'The universally recognised function of Caritas is to extend Christian charity to the world, and it would be ridiculous and false to believe that an organisation with purely humanitarian ends would lend itself to arms traffic'."
The Joint Church Aid statement goes on: "All funds collected in Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Americas by Catholic and Protestant agencies have in fact been spent in buying and transporting food and medicines for war victims. Protestant and Catholic agencies send foods and medicines to Nigeria and to Biafra irrespective of the province of origin or the religious denomination of the refugees.
"The relief to Biafra is sent by specially chartered planes from the 'base of Sao Torni in Portuguese West Africa. JCA has no other bases for planes. Before each flight, all planes are subject to control and inspection to prove that they carry nothing but humanitarian supplies.
"No less absurd in the eyes of Church and Red Cross workers who have been in Biafra since the relief operations were organised is the statement that humanitarian supplies end up with Biafran army units. More plausible, perhaps, at first sight, than the arms-running libel, this allegation is also seen on closer scrutiny to imply that Church leaders, missionaries and relief workers on the spot are liars."