Word: mobutu
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...hope. Last week, as the country marked the second anniversary of the army coup that overthrew Joseph Kasavubu in 1965, the mercenaries who have plagued it for years were in neighboring Rwanda, waiting with their suitcases and women for a one-way ticket out of Africa. Moreover, President Joseph Mobutu can claim credit for a lot more than driving out the "meres." In his two years of rule, he has laid at least the foundations for a more stable and efficient country...
...Mobutu has cracked down on warring tribes and moved to prevent secessionist governments. He has abolished the 22 provinces and replaced them with eight large provinces whose governors have neither full control of provincial police, as in the past, nor strong tribal ties. To reassure whites, he recently formed a "committee of intervention" composed of army men, government officials and whites whose job is to discourage racial strife. He has also removed the radical leadership of his wild Jeunesse (youth) movement, whose members last summer sacked the Belgian embassy and menaced whites in the streets of Kinshasa, the capital...
Against this background, nobody expected much unity to result from the Organization of African Unity, especially under the dubious leadership of General Mobutu, who had enough troubles of his own trying to persuade Algeria to release Moise Tshombe so he could execute the former President...
...have not worked out so well. Serious fighting has resumed, and it turns out that Zambia was offering only one plane for the entire operation, leaving the Katangese troops to fend for themselves. Not increasing the prospects for a truce is the American decision to provide transport planes for Mobutu's troops. However, there is still a possibility that a settlement may be worked out, though the future of Kuanda's plans formulated at the OAU Conference remains a question mark...
...Mobutu also moved last week to re move another source of domestic trou- ble-the Congo's galloping inflation. Partly because of unrest over his economic policies, he reshuffled his Cabinet, replacing nine of its members. What Mobutu would like to be rid of most of all is Moise Tshombe, his old political foe, for whom, he insists, Schramme's men were bringing pressure on his government. With the mercenaries gone, Mobutu may work harder to persuade Algeria, which holds Tshombe prisoner, to send him home for execution...