My Lords, I do not apologise for speaking on this subject,
even at this late hour, because it is one of great importance. Although it may
not be a "forgotten war" it is one that very few people know much
about. I have often asked people what they know about Biafra, and they have
said. "Isn't that an Italian football club?" That is about as far as
the large majority of people can go. Yet this is not just a tribal internal
matter; it is a matter of a large number of people.
I know it is
difficult to get at the truth, and that people use the words "truth"
and "liberty" for base and ignoble ends. I know there are many rebels
against just law and wholesome moral restraint who have masked their caprice
under the name of "liberty". On the other hand, we should have to
blot out half the pages of heroic history if we are to erase the deeds done,
the suffering endured, in the name of liberty. I am sure Biafra comes in the
second category. They are heroic people. Some may regard them as wicked because
they defend themselves, but I was there last month and I spent five days, not
only with the Ibos who are the main body in the central part, but also with the
minorities, and there is no doubt whatever that they are strongly Biafran—the
minorities included. I will speak about them later.
I do not want to
raise too many difficulties about the question of bombs. It is quite certain
that people believe that the bombs are British, and I said to them: "If I
am going to be briefed as an advocate I must have the truth, and I must have
evidence which would stand up in a court of law". They did not give me the
evidence that would satisfy me in a court of law, but I did see the outside
shells. I saw the casings which said, "Made in Britain" and I saw
"GE" cut off—and it could not have been stuck on, because every dent
and every cut corresponded with the other half of the casing underneath it. If
it was faked it was done by a highly skilled person who had come from China, or
somewhere like that. But it was not faked; it was definitely what it purported
to be. When we put it to them that these may have come from another nation to
which Britain had sold them, their answer was, "No, Britain makes a
stipulation that they are not for re-sale". Of course that does not mean
that the stipulation is kept.
I also argued—and
I hope genuinely, because I believe what I have heard—that there was not an
escalation. I dislike the fact that we went on sending arms, but I do not think
we had escalated the war to that extent. When I asked whether these bombs might
have been there before, the man in charge of the ordnance gave me his full
assurance that he was there before this war broke out and therefore he could
certify that they were not there because there was nothing of that kind among
the ammunition which had come from Britain. However, there were the markings
and sufficient superficial evidence for a large number of people to believe
this story. It is easy for these things to be exaggerated, and I hope there may
be some way of convincing them by an assurance that it is a lie. For instance,
one might have suggested an examination by Crown Agents, or something like
that.
I want now to
address myself to the question of minorities, because this is an important and
delicate question. It is true that many of the minority peoples were in
positions of responsibility in the Biafran Government. It is true that there
had always been peaceful relationships, cultural exchanges and a good deal of
inter-marriage between these peoples.But the main brunt of the destruction in
the war fell on these areas and had the effect of stiffening their loyalty to
Biafra rather than the reverse. It had been pointed out that we could only meet
the leaders, who were unquestionably loyal to Biafra—the others might be far
away. It is true that one cannot examine every witness, yet the crucial test
was the force of the argument put to me by Colonel Ojukwu: what happens when
the minority areas are invaded? Instead of falling into the arms of the Federal
soldiers and greeting them as great liberators, the inhabitants retreated
towards Biafra. I went to meeting after meeting which was crowded by various
minority groups who gave me "large welcomes", as they put it, a
little tempered by their dislike of Britain, but still thinking that the Church
of England was the Government of England. I tried to disillusion them on that
point, and said that we had very little influence whatsoever but that I would
do my best to put their case forward.
These were people
from minorities, who said that they would be loyal as Biafrans. In some cases
they were critical of individual leaders, but still they were more loyal than
the other Biafrans. So I do not think there would be a great deal of trouble
with the minorities. There is no doubt that some kind of a nation has been
formed and, as I said out there, I consider it is a crazy way to try to get
people into a Federation—bombing their civilians; and I know it was civilians
because time after time I was shown the hospitals, the market places, the
colleges that had been bombed. Of course there may have been military
objectives as well to which they did not take me, but I went up as far as
Onitsa and I saw what they were doing. I definitely saw a large number of
market places that had been bombed. How can we expect people, 30,000 of them,
or even if we amend it to 20,000, being massacred not in war but definitely
being massacred, chiefly as they came out of the churches, right through the
North, to federate? Between 1 million and 2 million were scattered from their
homes—and these are true facts which are accepted generally.
To go on bombing
their peoples and then say, "You will come into the Federation whether you
like it or not, and it is one of the conditions that you must come in and can
never have your independence", is asking for trouble. We have asked for it
in our own British history, and had it for years, with a certain country that
used to be part of Great Britain and is now a republic. You will never get these
people working together for a very long time unless there is far greater mutual
trust. They definitely believe that it is genocide; that the others want to
wipe out the Ibo people. They think it is also a religious war. I tried to calm
them down. They think it is Moslems against Christians. There are no Moslems
among the people in that western part of the Eastern Region; they are nearly
all—95 per cent. of them—Christians, chiefly Roman Catholics, though there are
a large number of Anglicans, Presbyterians and Methodists, with great names
like Mary Slessor of Calabar, whose great work is remembered with love and
affection by the people she cared for and thought of. And now so many of them
are being killed by arms which they think are coming from Britain.
I know it is true
to say that "If you stop your supply other people will supply bombs".
But the psychological effect would be tremendous if Britain said, "It is
time you got together, and until you do we are not going to send any more arms".
I doubt whether one could say that it was a de facto Government, let alone de
jure, of the Federal Army. The main thing, if we are to get them to come
together, as I hope we shall (I do mot think it will be in London, because of
this deep feeling: I wish it could be, because I think Ojukwu would be safer
here) is that they should come together without conditions. When I say
"without conditions" I mean just that. I pressed Ojukwu on this
question. He had at first said a cease-fire and peacekeeping forces on the borders.
But later on, I understand, it was to be entirely without conditions, though
the cease-fire would be at the beginning of the agenda. Let us try to get that.
But do not let 'us British try to force them back, because we had a wonderful
blueprint of a great union of Nigeria. Do not let us press them too hard to go
back into something which will cause more and more difficulty in the future. I
am grateful to the Commonwealth Secretariat. They have done fine work. I am
extremely grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Brockway, for introducing this
Question, and giving us a chance of clearing our minds as to what are the real
issues.
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