Word: kolwezi
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...waging war with Tshombe's breakaway regime for the third time since September 1961. In two weeks, the tough U.N. troops had seized a steadily lengthening ribbon of rail lines and nearly every major population center in the province. Only the western copper town of Kolwezi remained in Katanga's grip; it was defended by 2,000 boozy gendarmes, 100 of Tshombe's white mercenaries, and a smashing blonde ambulance driver known as "Madame Yvette," who sauntered about in paratroop boots, camouflage uniform, bush hat and shoulder holster. Only 50 miles from Kolwezi, Indian infantrymen probed cautiously...
...Artists. Tshombe himself alternately shouted defiance and whispered of his peaceable aims. After a panicky flight to Southern Rhodesia when the U.N. first attacked, he returned to Katanga, setting up headquarters in the town of Kolwezi. He was disposed to negotiate, he said, but if the U.N. refused to do so, "we shall fight to the end." Upset at his gendarmerie's pitiful showing, he reportedly sacked hot-tempered Army Commander General Norbert ("Napoleon") Moké, relied chiefly on a force of 200 or 300 white mercenaries for a possible last-ditch stand. But apparently even the mercenaries left...
...which the nations of the West may examine their souls and reflect on how Mr. Tshombe's fall affects their plans for the Congo. There is no longer any doubt that Mr. Tshombe has fallen: beyond the gift of a week in which he must decide to yield his Kolwezi headquarters to U.N. troops or, by his refusal, consent to his political burial, the Katangan leader who juggled the world's anxieties for a year and a half has been left with nothing...
...Secessionist Moise Tshombe, a few minor incidents got out of hand, and for the third time since September 1961 the province was in turmoil. Blue-helmeted U.N. soldiers swarmed through Elisabethville, seized roadblocks on the highways. Swedish U.N. Saab jets swooped low over Katanga's airfield at Kolwezi, destroying four planes on the ground and setting oil tanks ablaze. In the first skirmishes, seven U.N. soldiers were dead...
Atom Smashing. But the planes also had their lethal uses. Out of the blue one morning, the Swedish Saabs showed up with guns blazing over the copper-mining town of Kolwezi, 150 miles northwest of Elisabethville on Katanga's only rail line to the Atlantic Ocean. Within minutes, half a dozen railway locomotives and cars were out of action; then, with a roar, the town's main fuel tanks, filled with thousands of gallons of diesel oil, went up in a leaping column of flame and smoke. Near by was the village of Luilu, site...