Word: katanga
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Atop the wreckage stood grinning, pop-eyed Moise Tshombe of separatist Katanga province. Fortnight earlier, Tshombe had talked his way out of his confinement in a Leopoldville villa with solemn pledges to merge Katanga with the rest of the Congo; as Moise left for home, he embraced his old enemies, showered them with compliments. But once he was back in the safety of Katanga, crafty Tshombe changed his tune. The agreement signed in Leopoldville was forced from him under duress, he sneered. Last week Tshombe's regime declared that Katanga would not give up its own separate currency...
...fervently advocated. Army Commander General Joseph Mobutu openly opposed Parliament's return. So did Foreign Minister Justin Bomboko. Kasavubu himself stalled off the U.N. officials who urged him to go ahead and formally declare the opening of Parliament, with or without the delegates. His reason: without Katanga's votes, control of the legislature just might swing to the Communist-backed regime of that other prominent Congolese secessionist, Stanleyville's Antoine Gizenga, who runs Eastern province...
Same Old Mess. A year after independence, the Congo's economy was a national mess. Katanga, whose copper mines have missed hardly a day's work through all the troubles, was booming. But in the rest of the Congo, 70% of the labor force was unemployed. Exports, which before independence averaged $20 million a month, had dropped to $6.5 million. Inflation had pushed food prices up 20%, and building construction was at a complete standstill. Yet, by African standards, the Congo is a rich country, and somehow things faltered on, thanks mainly to the U.N., which had poured...
...home, Premier Joseph Ileo produced the grinning prisoner in a striped charcoal-grey suit and green polka-dot tie. Tshombe promptly took the floor. After two months under guard, he seemed a changed man. Gone was his anger at his captors; gone, too, was all the talk of Katanga as a separate nation. "Katanga has always wanted to collaborate with the rest of its brethren in the Congo," he said, as if he had always felt that way. "Katanga is an industrial province. It needs customers. Building customs barriers would cut down the profits...
...ended. He is above them all, all, all, all." Then, of all things, Tshombe embraced Congolese Foreign Minister Justin Bomboko, who a few weeks ago accused him of high treason. "He was my worst enemy," grinned Moise. "Now he is my best friend." Back home in Katanga, Tshombe's aides glumly prepared to hand over their army to central Congolese government control, for that, too, was part of the deal...