Word: mobutu
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...dream, everything seemed to be moving at half speed. But slowly, the Congo's balance was tipping toward the forces that bore the label of reckless Patrice Lumumba, though he was still in Colonel Joseph Mobutu's jail. If Lumumba won, the world could thank the ceaseless efforts of Moscow and Cairo and Accra. The U.N. itself, under the myriad pressures of its diverse membership, stood by in confusion...
...Stanleyville regime of Antoine Gizenga, once Lumumba's vice premier, was getting clandestine arms shipments from Gamal Abdel Nasser's U.A.R., freely used terror to consolidate its control over neighboring Kivu province. Escaping missionaries were prevented from crossing the border, prisoners of the old pro-Mobutu regime at Bukavu were tortured, and the Mother Superior and a nun from Bukavu's hospital were under arrest for alleged misuse of funds...
Rule by Kidnap. Kivu, a land of rich highlands and rolling farms once run by Belgians, was easily won. Gizenga simply sent several Jeeploads of troops swooping into Bukavu, Kivu's capital, to negotiate with the wavering Kivu provincial leaders. When the latter refused to disavow Mobutu, the invaders simply kidnaped the conferees-Kivu's provincial president, a couple of his ministers and the local army commander-and hauled them back to Stanleyville to get them out of the way. Suddenly, Kivu had a new provincial boss, who turned out to be another Lumumba crony, former Minister...
Straying Escort. Sputtering with rage, Colonel Mobutu vowed to retaliate and to bring Kivu back under his control. But how? The only troops he could depend on were nearLéopoldville, 900 miles away, and the U.N. surely would forbid the use of trucks or planes to haul them east for an all-out invasion. No one, however, could complain when he airlifted 100 troops to Kasai as an escort for President Joseph Kasavubu on his official visit to Bakwanga, capital of the secessionist Mining State in Kasai. But soon after the heavily armed "escort" got to Kasai, the transports...
...Roundup. But when Mobutu's troops crossed the bridge under a white flag and advanced on the town, Kashamura's pro-Lumumba soldiers greeted them with a cascade of chattering machine guns and banging rifles. When it was all over four hours later, no one much had been hurt, but Mobutu's invaders were in jail. So was their commander, who promptly changed sides and began issuing statements damning Mobutu as a "colonialist intriguer...