Word: congos
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...When the Congo's white mercenaries revolted last month, it seemed hardly possible that their rebellion could end in anything but defeat. The "meres," after all, number only 160 men, backed up by 1,500 or so dissident Katangese troops, while President Joseph Mobutu's Congolese National Army is 30,000 strong. Moreover, the rebel commander, Major Jean Schramme, is not a soldier; he is a Belgian plantation owner who has lived in the Congo for 23 of his 36 years. But last week it was "Black Jack" Schramme and his mercenaries who held the upper hand...
...Katangese captain, and made sure that 300 white civilian refugees from the fighting were escorted safely across the border into Rwanda. Then he issued an ultimatum giving Mobutu ten days in which to negotiate for peace. Among Schramme's terms: that Mobutu return democratic government to the Congo, annul the treason conviction of ex-President Tshombe (who is now in an Algerian jail awaiting extradition) and make Tshombe a member of the Cabinet...
Species of Superman? The mercenary apparently gets great emotional satisfaction from his work. In a new book, Congo Mercenary, Colonel Hoare, who is now retired and living on a yacht moored off Durban, reflects that a large number of his recruits were drunks, dope addicts and ("the greatest surprise of all") homosexuals...
Fringe Benefits. All meres are well paid. Pilots in Saudi Arabia command as much as $2,800 a month, and meres in Yemen, many of them radio and demolition technicians, earn more than $1,000 a month. In the Congo, where the hazards are greater and more than 100 mercenaries have been killed in three years, the pay is less. It averages $800 a month-with bonuses for perilous assignments. But there are also fringe benefits that come from plundering captured properties...
Such opportunities are getting harder to find. The U.N. Security Council recently passed a resolution condemning countries that harbor mercenaries. Only three weeks ago, French police detained seven mercenary recruits as they boarded a plane in Nice for service in the Congo. And Belgium is about to pass a law providing strict penalties for recruitment of meres. But whatever the restrictions, while there are wars to be won, mercenary soldiers are likely to find a job. They have always been hated by those whom they fought, just as they have been defended by those they defended-as in British Poet...