Word: kolwezi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...hard to realize that at the source of this exuberant retreat was a bloody massacre. The attack on Kolwezi by the self-styled Katangese "Tigers" had been thoroughly organized. A year earlier, an estimated 2,000 rebels had launched Shaba I, an incursion into the region that was halted short of Kolwezi after 49 days of fighting between the F.N.L.C. forces and the French-supported Moroccan and Zaïrian troops. The rebels promised to return to Shaba and overthrow Mobutu's regime. They carefully planned this infiltration. After the liberation of Kolwezi, French paratroopers found three railroad cars...
Some witnesses of the Kolwezi attack reported the presence of Spanish-speaking observers who might have been Cubans. Jose Gomes Jardim, a Portuguese resident of Kolwezi, said he had seen and heard four black men and one white speaking Spanish during the assault. "One of them wanted to kill my family," Jardim said later, "but a Katangese commander said, 'No, he is Portuguese. Don't kill him.' Whether they were Cubans or not I do not know...
...Tigers first surrounded the city, then struck at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning, before much of Kolwezi was awake. Although there had been rumors in Shaba for weeks that trouble was imminent, the city was defended by no more than 300 Zairian troops. Recalled Belgian Civil Engineer Freddy Wauters, 39: "At first I thought it was soldiers letting off a bit of steam." But then the rebels appeared and demanded to know whether Wauters was French. They were looking, as it turned out, for Moroccan and French "mercenaries" who had thrown back the F.N.L.C. last year. Several Libyans working...
...outset, said refugees from Kolwezi, the rebels appeared to be tough and well regimented; they also knew their business. Harold Amstutz, of Portsmouth, Va., a pilot for the American Methodist mission in the city, radioed news of the invasion on the first day of the attack. The next time he tried to broadcast from his house, guerrillas swarmed through the neighborhood, banging on doors and shouting "Missionary! Missionary!" in an effort to locate Amstutz and his radio. Said the pilot: "They must have had good equipment, including a direction finder, to pick up my transmission that quickly...
Belgium had agreed to help out Mobutu for humanitarian reasons. Concentrating on the rescue mission, Brussels' 1,300 red-bereted paratroopers cleared the key routes into Kolwezi, set up an emergency medical-aid station at the city's airport, and began evacuating refugees. The fighting was done by 600 legionnaires, who encircled Kolwezi, took up positions on the main roads, and then launched foot patrols inside the city. The French troops encountered an ephemeral enemy that drifted away rather than risk a pitched battle. There were, however, a few fierce skirmishes, in which the legion lost four...