Word: coppers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...pumped into Mobutu's army, it broke and ran in the face of a few thousand Katangan rebels, and had to be bailed out by the French and Belgians. Mobutu's latest pronouncement on the subject was his call this week for a "foreign defense force" for the copper mines in Katanga--a euphemism for mercenaries and more bail-outs...
Mobutu's regime is shaky because he has never represented nationalist aspirations for an independent Zaire. Mobutu came to power in the early '60s as a result of foreign intervention, and he has stayed in power propped up with U.S. aid, CIA backing and revenues from the foreign-run copper mines in Shaba province. He has consistently looked out for his personal interests, rather than the welfare of the impoverished majority of Zaire's peoples--reputed to be the wealthiest person in Africa, Mobutu owns the largest hotel in Dakar, Senegal, as well as a number of hotels...
...obvious political repression: the colony's economy was structured to benefit the Belgians, and the Belgians alone. When the Congo gained independence, social security payments in Belgium dropped 40 per cent--an indication of the importance of the huge African country for its colonial masters. The rich copper mines in Shaba, then Katanga, were owned by a Belgian state monopoly. The Belgians had hoped to continue their economic control even when political power had passed into African hands...
...President felt hampered in his authority to conduct foreign policy, he confronted a series of new challenges last week. In Ethiopia, government forces, backed by Cuban troops, opened an offensive against secessionists in Eritrea. In pro-U.S. Zaïre, leftist rebels based in Angola stormed into the copper-rich province of Shaba. At breakfast with congressional leaders, Carter fumed specifically about his "frustration at having his hands tied" by the 1975 law restricting U.S. intervention in Angola...
Once again the copper-rich region of Shaba (formerly Katanga Province) in southeastern Zaïre was engulfed in civil war. An estimated 5,000 Katangese. guerrillas of the Congolese National Liberation Front (F.L.N.C.), which has been seeking autonomy for Shaba since Zaïre gained its independence from Belgium in 1960, launched a deadly strike on the region from their bases in Marxist-run Angola. In a seesaw battle with the forces of President Mobutu Sese Seko, the Katangese rebels-who variously refer to themselves as les tigres (French for tigers) or camaradas (Portuguese for comrades)-captured the provincial...