The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 5

NEWS THE GVARMAN Friday January BKi Relief agencies sceptical about 'inedible food' Official watchdog rebels accuses EEC of MO -yr mismanagiii aid oil 'ill i in; tint- "Horrible sniff American multinationals taking advantage of sob poor Third World countries, killing and maiming the innocentsniff sign here, little buddy Delhi moves to curb a US legal binge by Alex Scott in Brussels and Michael Simmons in London criticism of the EEC's food aid programme has tome from the Community's financial watchdog, the Court of Auditors, in a report released in as international famine -relief organisations greeted with qualified scepticism yesterday's suggestion from a Labour MP that EEC food aid. for Africa was "often arriving unfit for human Consumption." Mr George FouUtes had claimed that people had died as a result of EEC delays and bureaucracy, but officials at the World Food Programme in Borne, which has been shipping food aid for than 20 years, last night rejected the that vast quantities of inedible grain were. piling up km a regular basts on Ethiopian docksldes or elsewhere in the starring Sahel, although it Conceded that the systematic Supervision of unloading was necessary and that spot-checks fey-WFP surveyors were routine. Mr Erik Moller, of the WFFs" Resources Management Division, said in Rome last night: ''We demand first-fclass quality in the grain ship-Snemts we handle and in 99 per bent of the cases this is what we get." An Oxfenj official said that the "inedible" parts of shipments were very -small, but this was partly, because complaints lodged were obviously minimal when the food was coming as aid. You dont complain when It's a gift," he said.

However, the Court of Audi tors made a scathing, attack on the EEC Commission, accusing it of mismanagement, inefficiency and carelessness in Its operation of aid programmes. The court produces its report annually and, according to the latest report covering the 1983 -accounts, deliveries, of food aid "frequently arrived late or at the wrong time." It cites several instances of certain countries, which, had the most urgent or greatest need of aid receiving none of the aid promised under the programme. It claims that, at the end of the period, in December, 1983, quantities equivalent to more than half of an annual programme in cereals, to more than two-thirds of a programme in milk products and to almost the whole of a pro-, gramme in butter oil had still not been delivered. The entire management system for food aid should be reviewed, the auditors say, and the Commission should propose both rules and administrative procedures for rectifying the defects which, they say, keep recurring and even worsening at the expense of the poorest countries of all. The quality of the' products supplied by the Community, which are provided out of EEC stores held in the member states, also comes under attack from the auditors.

The report gives one example of 15,000 tonnes of maize provided for Mozambique from French stores which had been mixed with old wheat, some of which contained black chunks of mould." Commenting on this particu 'step up invasion' Prom Tom Lansner in Manila Un to 2.000 armed Muslim rebels have landed on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao during the past two months, military sources claimed yesterday. The seaborne rebel army said to belong to the 'Philippine Democratic Revolu tion, a previously unneara oi group described as Marxist. It plans to link up with guerrilla units of the Communist New People's Army (NPA). to fight government forces. Military reports claim that the Muslim fighters were trained in the Malaysian state of Sabah.

on Borneo, 250 miles west of An esti mated quarter of a million Filipinos, nearly alii of them Muslims: fled to Sabah from Mindanao during the last 15 years to escape intermittent fighting between the army and rebels seeking autonomy for the Philippines' five million Muslims. The Malaysian Government denies the Muslims separatists are using Sabah as a base tor their operations. But reliable reports indicate a low level oi rebel movement across the stretch of the Sulu Sea between Mindanao and Sabah, which launches can cover in about 18 hours. In an area already rife with smugglers and pirates, such small-scale movement is almosi impossible to police, but the moving of up to 2,000 men with weapons seems to indicate at least tacit Malaysian consent. The allegations of a new Muslim threat, on Mindanao.

comes, at a time when -the Philippine armed force's especially on the strife-torn southern island are under neavy tire from civilian critics as well as rebel forces. Prominent government politicians nave joined opposition calls for a revamping, or at least a look at military commanders and a review of policies in the region. Defence officials give a. conservative estimate of about 3,000 NPA fighters in Mindanao, and recently put the num' active Muslim rebels at less than 1,000 faced by 60.000 soldiers and militia. Despite the heavy government forces, only limited success is reported against the.

Muslim rebels, and -growing chunks of territory are falling' under the sway of the NPA. A panel of'-proseciitors has' agreed that the murder of leader, Benignt' Aquino; was the result of military conspiracy. The pane) would uphold the findings o' the earlier official inquiry tha-there had been a conspiracy, panel source said. BEAUMONT, Texas: A group of Texas lawyers bias filed a $50 billion suit here against Union Carbide on behalf of victims of the Bhopal gas disaster, the" Indian Government has announced that it will provide free legal aid to survivors and victims to save them from being exploited by foreign lawyers. Mr Benton Musslewhlte, a member of a US legal team representing victims of the accident on December 3 that killed at least, 2,000 people, said that the Texas suit was based on a provision In the state's law that could give it jurisdiction.

The provision grants citi zens of countries which have equal treaty rights with the US the right to sue for damages in Texas courts, he said. Laws' in most other states did not spell out the legal' rights of foreign citizens. Although other US lawyers had filed suits in various federal courts on behalf of Bhopal. victims, Mr Musselwhite said- he expected the federal judges to rale that the case should, be heard in Indian courts. "In all candour, the central controversy is that Union Carbide wants the case handled in India, where personal injury recoveries are' virtually non-existent, and the.

plaintiffs want the -case handled1 in the United States; where they can recover just damages," he said. He claimed that Indian civil courts could take 14 to 20 years to hear, a case and did not allow jury trials, the use -of depositions, or contingency contracts But India's Minister of State for law; Mr H. R. Bhardwaj, told High Court lawyers in New Delhi yesterday that his Government had decided to establish a legal aid committee to take Bhopal compensation claims against i Carbide through the courts at Government expense, because it did not want the tragedy to be exploited by foreign lawyers." He did. not- say whether the committee would with cases submitted to American courts.

'The Texas suit alleges more than 30 counts of negligence, Including claims that the company knew the equipment intended to prevent the release, of. the deadly methyl Isocyanate gas was inferior and inadequate by US standards. About 1,000 Bhopal victims began an Indefinite sit-down demonstration yesterday outside the state Chief Minister's home demanding a meeting end relief -payments. They want allowances and employment Reuter. Swazi police hunt ANC guerrillas Peking launches matchmaking drive aimed at marrying of spinsters One' female graduate, aged .30, said in a.

letter to China Youth Daily I have not yet found a man who appreciates my; qualities and who supports my. career goals. Many of the young men I meet are what you -might call feudal-minded. their choice," he added. The raid On M'babane police station is the second time in eight months that ANC fighters are reported to have freed imprisoned comrades in Swazi gaols.

In April last year, ANC fighters were said to have raided Bhunya police station in Swaziland and to have freed four of their comrades, who later disappeared. The ANC, however, later accused Swazi authorities of handing the men over to South Africa after pretending" they had been freed at gunpoint Last October, Mr Babalazi Bulunga, a former Representative Council president of the University of Swaziland, who was said to have had close links with the ANCt was deported from Swaziland and immediately arrested by South African police. single men. There is also a wide disparity between the educational backgrounds, of single men and women; bachelors tend to have had a poof education, while many spinsters are. employed in An article in Women of China recently said that men did not want to marry women with equal educational backgrounds, -A telecommunications research worker was quoted as saying: "If I want to have successful career, -naturally I A NEWSPAPER has been launched in Fujian province lonely hearts, exclusively aimed at unmarried people over-30.

The bi-weekly Yuclao, which hopes to play." the role of matchmaker, already has 150,000 subscribers. Regular columns include. "How, to Choose a "To and "Guide to Family Yuelao means Cupld.in Chinese. Renter. "I'm afraid I will never be their-ideal-submissive wife and devoted mother." Some experts' point out that more girls, than boys were born in the population boom years of the 1950s.

But there are also numbers of From Patrick Laurenc in Johannesburg Swaziland police yesterday launched a manhunt for Afn-fean National Congress fighters after armed ANC insurgents forced police at M'babane police station to free three imprisoned ANC men. The Swazi police commissioner, Mr Majaje Simelane, yesterday confirmed reports that three gaoled ANC men were freed after the police station was raided by. ANC men armed with AK-47 rifles early on Wednesday. But he denied that the raid bad been followed by attempts to mount similar raids to free 'ANC men' from other police stations. The Swazi police were determined to capture all ANC men still at large in Swaziland and ''deport them to a country of Diplomat is kidnapped Beirut The charge d'affaires at the Swiss embassy here was kidnapped by five gunmen in Muslim West Beirut yesterday.

Mr Eric Wehrii's car was Intercepted on the seaside Corniche Boulevard and he was forced into the gunmen's car. Which sped away. No shots Were fired, Sources at the Shi'ite Muslim 'Amal movement, the dominant militia in West Beirut, said the group asked all its offices and positions in Beirut -to search for the diplomat. AP. lar case, the Commission joints out that deliveries of maize from France are now "systematically for quality and there have been no further problems of the kind mentioned by the auditors.

The report also cites serious shortcomings; in other areas of EEC development with, further examples of funds which have been mis-spent-or which have served: to finance projects that have been badly executed. In one example, a school in the Central; 'African. Republic has a refectory block with no ventilation, either natural or mechanical, and remains unused. The administrative offices at the same school had bars fitted to the inside instead of the. outside of the windows, which afforded 3io protection and made them impossible to open.

Faulty water supply equipment provided for a project in Zambia, which was supposed to make the water drinkable, has, in fact, exposed the local population to added health risks, the report suggests. The auditors state that faults which they have been pointing out in successive reports recur with disconcerting regularity." They claim that there is a lack of follow-up on most projects financed" by the Community, a lack which verges on "complete disinterest" for completed projects. There is an urgent need, the report suggests, for the Commission to participate in setting up a data bank which would to avoid the repetition of certain design or management errors, Africa trip for Howe By Patrick Keatley, Diplomatic Correspondent Sir Geoffrey Howe- leaves today on a week's mission to three African capitals where British investment and development aid will be high on the agenda. The Foreign Secretary is to see the Zimbabwe Prime Minis ter, Mr Mugabe, President Kaunda of Zambia, and President Arap Moi of Kenya. There is an implicit message here for IPr'etoria, that- the Foreign Secretary, on his first African tour since taking wm omit south Africa from nis itinerary; The British view" is that Pre toria's decision to refuse to allow four of its citizens to return to Britain to face" trial in an arms case is a snub to British courts that cannot ishing black market which has offered customers as much as 54 per cent over the official central bank rate of 0.83 to the dollar.

It is estimated that the bulk of overseas Egyptian workers' remittances, which form a cornerstone of the economy at around 2 billion a year, are' repatriated through unofficial Nineteen currency dealers ana Dans omciais are on nuai before the Court of Ethics on charges related to illegal currency dealing. waiting for with no obllcatlon. 1 Egypt will allow its currency to float From Kathryn Davles in Cairo The Government, faced with an acute shortage of foreign currency, is bowing to reality and legalising a floating rate of exchange for the Egyptian pound against the US dollar. A committee of four state' and four private banks will set the new rate on a daily basis from tomorrow. The Egyptian currency has been held at an artificially high level against the dollar with a complicated series of exchange rates, despite a flour BACK SUFFERERS! expect my wife to do' the housework.

If both of us are career-minded, neither will succeed. A matchmaking bureau in Guangzhou conducted a survev which found, however, that 54.2 per cent of the men on their books did not care what schooling-, a prospective partner nan. One woman told the bureau 'M3ome men told'us they simply looking; for a woman who knew how lo coofc.If they could ask for. "something else, (they would '-'want her to be pretty and- submissive." The State is now trying to change these ingrained Many' articles have been published the. official press urging young people- to adopt down-to-earth approaches to marriage.

Name. Address- Occupation rmm lflCl I Professional By Eve-Ann Prentica After years of trying to stop women in China having babies, the authorities are embarking on what seems a contradictory campaign single women over 30 are being. urged to marry. Matchmaking bureaux are being set up all over the country as an increasing number of women choose to stay unwed after the. official marrying age of 25 is reached.

The trend is worrying the State and event, been dubbed -the problem 1 Jf the Slider youth the problem" concerns both sexes, it is women who seem to be coming, under- most pressure. The authorities say that they are concerned for humanitarian reasons and because they want' to ease single people's loneliness. crisis puts lives at risk By Victoria Brittaln The TTnttori lVatiAne raliaf agency, TJnrwa, which -provides education for 340,000 children in Palestinian refugee camps, and health services- for 2 million people; is to make an ur gent appeal ior iunus. oecause of a cash crisis. The appeal will be made, by the Commissioner-General.

Mr gency meeting of the organisation's general cabinet next week. A 10 ner cent staff reduc tion and other spending cuts have already been made at the organisation's Vienna head-Quarters, and cuts in the five Unrwa field offices in the Middle East will Of its $200 million annual budget, 70 per cent goes into education, and the only feasible cuts' will mean even larger classes, ac cording to unrwa officials. The projected income for 1985 "falls farshort of the amount, required to maintain the agency's education, xieaiui and relief programmes existing levels," Mr Rydbeck said. Britain provides 7 million a year to the agency, which gets a third of its income from the US and a large slice from Arab governments. In recent years, since oil prices began to fall and the Gulf war swallowed up a major chunk of their revenue, Arab contributions have dropped.

Fifteen Palestinians suffering from kidney failure are the. first casualties of the cash crisis. Emergency funds for their haemodialysis treatment ran out New -Year's Eve and Unrwa is appealing for $50,000 to keep the going until the end of. March. Food blockade starts to bite Beirut: Fuel and bread began to run short in Beirut yesterday as relatives of oeoole kidnarmed in Lebanon's civil war kept up a blockade of roads linking the Muslim and Christian districts of the city.

The kidnap protest, which began a week ago, prevented supply irucKs irom reacning mainly Muslim West Beirut, where petrol stations ran dry and bakeries, short of cutback production. Reuter. The relief you' vejjeen i E2E2 JUL WRONG a tigging bed or banned cm' aggravate If you can get an unsecured personal loan up to 7,500 for less, we'd like to know about it. We are the experts All our beds are made by craftsmen and are in appearance just like top quality 'standard' beds but only in appearance. And we do not charge the earth in fact no more than a good quality single or double 'standard' bed.

Because our beds come straight from our factory we are able to cut out the middlemen's profit and keep our prices down. If you have a back problem, if your partner is heavier than you or if you suffer from hack pain contact Postcoriipletedcouponto; I Plan Manager, To find out more Years of experience tell us that standard beds may not be right for every human body. If they provide excellent support for someone of heavy build they're most unlikely to suit anyone lighter. And vice versa. Either way, at least one partner may well experience aches and pains.

What's the answer? A bed. from the Orthopaedic Bedding Advisory Service. Adouble brd with two entirely different types of springing to suit the needs of each partner exactly; to ease ihem gently into the right positions to keep the spine relaxed and flexible; to help lift the pressure off DDncs, muscles, tendons, nerve endings and joints. Who are OBAS? We are the Orthopaedic Bedding Advisory Service. Our surgical orthopaedic technician and our professionally qualified consultants have been responsible for ihe design of thousands of OBAS (single and double) beds to specifications dictated by weight, shape and medical history of each of our customers.

Post today (no stamp required) to OBAS, Dace Roaii, London 3 2BR. "At last, a Plan which acknowledges the needs of the busy professional Introducing a unique unsecured loan opportunity at a very special interest rate." Very special means 19.8 APR (variable) which is an extremely competitive rate when compared witii any source of unsecured finance. The Professional Plan is more than a speciaj rate, it has the major advantages of speed, convenience and privacy of postal handling that means no interviews; no discussions.Tio justifying howyou spendyour hard-won income. And if your use is for a qualifying home improvement, we can offer a MIRAS loan with net of tax repayments. Take advantage of our proposal now, and return the coupon for details of the Professional Plan and a repayment table for loans from 1,000 to 7,500.

Alternatively, call 01200 7575 and talk to a professional. Written quotations-available on request. I IfBBllrt TobBASiIaflilntctatcdialcnmrijif moiviboUE I OBASanhopieilkbtditlaadtaaaditeeliao OBAS I Name (Mr, Ma, Ml) I (BIOCKCAPITAIS) Addrea 1 I (1 am over 18) -I -Postcode- Arranged ry ENDEAVOUR F1NANCIA1A PLAN I i ms nas included doctors diagnosis, wnere Known, OBAS, tpt G18 FREBPOST, DACE KOAD, LONDON E32BR. 3ACEROAD.IONDONEJ2BB. ErKtavrAirHnancialStrvicesltd,.