Word: katanga
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...existence of an independent Katanga would be harmful to the West, since Africans would point to it as an example of neo-colonialism, as grounds for continuing distrust of the West," emphasized Dr. Antoine van Bilsen, former adviser to Congo president Joseph V. Kasavubu, in an interview yesterday...
Underground Interest. What bothered Britain and France was the chance that the Katanga chaos could spread elsewhere in Africa, a continent where political tempers are close to flash point at the best of times. London was especially worried, since Katanga shares a 1,100-mile border with Britain's tense Northern Rhodesia protectorate. Moreover, some Britons and Frenchmen also have heavy financial interests in Katanga itself,* mostly through part ownership of the rich Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, one of the world's biggest copper and cobalt producers, which (according to a report by U.N. Acting...
...fuss about the foreign soldiers employed by Tshombe, who are widely and bitterly denounced as "mercenaries"? Many of them are probably no less idealistic than the U.N. soldiers fighting against Katanga (who in turn are denounced as "mercenaries" by Tshombe). Other African states employ foreign officers, and many Americans recall that their own country was aided by idealistic "mercenaries" from Europe during the American Revolution...
...shouldn't Katanga have the right to "self-determination"? The overall area of the Congo is not defined by clear ethnic or geographic factors, but simply by the fact that it was carved out 76 years ago by Belgium as a colony...
Fact of History. But the real issues are not the nature of Tshombe's "mercenaries," or self-determination (Katanga is not a nation, and its people probably understand little about their real situation), or Tshombe's antiCommunism. As a fact of history, the Congo exists, and it depends on mineral-rich Katanga for economic survival. Without Katanga the rest of the Congo may well slide into chaos and possibly Communism. Privately, many in Britain and France-and some observers in the U.S.-are willing to let this happen, and retain Katanga as the one viable part...