Word: contentieux
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Dates: during 1964-1964
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...Portfolio. The major obstacle has been the contentieux-a number of financial and legal bones of contention left over from the Belgian colonial administration. First on the list was the Congo's preindependence debt of $920 million. Brussels, which had backed $240 million of the debt, was willing to honor its share but insisted that the Congolese help pay the rest...
...Dash of Sweetener. Last August negotiations over the contentieux broke down, and Congolese Premier Cyrille Adoula flew home from Brussels in a jet-propelled snit. His mood was not improved when the Belgians, three months later, failed in a move to ease him out of office. Papa Spaak's visit last week was aimed at renewing the negotiations. Long a friend of Adoula's central government, Spaak had opposed the Belgian conservatives who backed Katanga's secession...
After four days of secret sessions, the two men emerged beaming. "The contentieux are now behind us," Adoula announced. Spaak had recognized the Congolese government's claim to the stock portfolio but left vague the question of its future management. On the question of the public debt, Adoula agreed to pay; Spaak offered a sweetener of $20 million in commercial credit to Adoula's near-bankrupt government, plus another $3.6 million for development of a Congolese cotton industry...
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