Israel to Train Paratroopers for Congo; Plan Announced at U.N.

The Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville) announced here today that Israel will form a paratroop corps for the Congolese National Army as part of a plan for the complete reorganization and retraining of all of the Congo’s armed forces.

At the same time, it became known that the Congo plan, involving bilateral agreements, between the Leopoldville Government and Italy, Norway, Canada, the United States, Belgium and Israel has already been laid by Secretary-General U Thant before the UN’s Congo Advisory Committee. That committee consists of 19 members of the United Nations, including Moslem and Arab states but not including Israel.

The Congo Government’s announcement here confirmed previous informal reports that several NATO powers plus Israel will aid in the reorganization and retraining of the country’s armed forces. The announcement, distributed by the Congolese delegation, stated that the plans had been formally made public at Leopoldville by Maj. Gen. Joseph Mobutu, commander-in-chief of the Congolese National Army.

Under the plan, according to Gen. Mobutu, Italy will organize the Congolese air force, Norway will train officers for a Navy, Canada will provide technical instruction, Belgium will be in charge of establishing and running military schools, Israel “will handle formation of a paratrooper corps,” while the United States, which will not participate directly in the training program, will furnish equipment.

Prime Minister Adoula of the Congo, said Mr. Thant, has apparently “had the assurances” that the countries he has approached, “will provide the assistance required” and that “the financial responsibility for the costs of that assistance rests entirely with the assisting country.” Thus, it was seen here, Israel will pay the costs involved in the establishment and training of a paratrooper corps for the Congo Army.

The training of the Congolese paratroopers, it was indicated by Gen. Mobutu, will be done in Israel at the beginning of the project. “In the first years of the program,” he stated, “most of the retraining will take place outside the Congo, in schools of the supervising countries.”