1.
CU Sign "Kenyatta Conference Centre" TILT UP Building Tower
0.08

2.
MV Delegates arriving
0.18

3.
SV Ivory Coast delegates talking before conference opens
0.24

4.
SVs Delegations from Zambia, Kenya, Ghana (3)
0.38

5.
SV Delegation from upper Volta
0.43

6.
SV Korean delegates talking
0.48

7.
SV Swaziland and Sudan delegates
0.54

8.
GV & SV Saudi Arabia and Trinidad and Tobago delegates
1.04

9.
SV Khmer Republic delegation
1.09

10.
SV Egypt and Mexico delegates
1.17

11.
GV PAN OVER Conference
1.31



Initials SC/2302 SC/005



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Representatives from 77 developing nations began meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday (26th March) to try to work out a uniform approach to maritime laws in preparation for the United Nations Conference on The Law of the Sea in Venezuela in June.

The "Group of Seventy-Seven" will consider several draft proposals, mostly alternatives, prepared by a working committee, and a document prepared on behalf of land-locked states. The Ugandan Foreign Minister, Miss. Elizabeth Bagaaya, formerly Princess Elizabeth of Toro, presented the document of behalf of the landlocked Third World Nations. It had been drawn up at a preparatory gathering in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and called for unrestricted access to the ocean, and laws to make coastal states allow use of their ports on an equal basis to ships flying flags of landlocked countries.

At the opening of the ten-day conference on Tuesday, the delegates listened to a message from President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya urging them to make every effort to work out a common Third World stand. His message was: "unless the developing countries can speak with one voice on issues to be discussed at Caracas (capital of Venezuela) they will fall prey to the maritime powers, who for centuries have been exploiting they resources of the sea for their own benefit".

Dr. Njoroge Mungai, the Kenyan Foreign Minister, opened the conference with a speech that echoed President Kenyatta's message. "We cannot afford to fail", Dr. Mungai said.