Tuesday, July 1st 1980.
Footage of President Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone greeting arriving Heads of State to an OAU summit in Freetown. These included Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon, Hilla Limann of Ghana, Sekou Toure of Guinea, and Samora Machel of Mozambique. The UN Secretary General, Mr. Kurt Waldheim was also present.
Up for discussion were ecomic issues affecting the African continent, a peacekeeping force in Chad, the situation in Namibia and whether the Polisario Front of the Western Sahara should be given a seat wihin the organisation,
Apart from the shunning of Master Seargent Doe who had overthrown President William Tolbert earlier in the year and Morocco's threat to leave the OAU if the Polisario Front was given a seat, the summit was controversial because debt-ridden Sierra Leone was spending £65 million (Sterling) to host it.
Source: Reuters News Archive.
See:
SIERRA LEONE: From Athens to an Ill-Run Sparta: Corruption and repression in the realm of "the Pa" www.sierraheral...
A Time Magazine article which put the costs of the conference at $200 million. A prescient sentence read: "Sierra Leone under Stevens is like Liberia under Tolbert: a time bomb waiting to explode." Also revealing was a Western diplomat's comment that "Stevens often confuses the national bank account with his own."
Негізгі бет Siaka Stevens Greets OAU Heads of State | Liberia's Mst. Sgt. Samuel Doe Not Invited | July 1980
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