Word: mobutu
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...problem began in July, when Kisangani was seized by its garrison of Katangese gendarmes, a tough and trou blesome outfit that in theory was incorporated into the Congolese National Army, but whose first loyalty had al ways been to Tshombe. To put down the rebellion, President Joseph Mobutu promised to send the gendarmes back to Katanga - even though he feared that once they were there, the Kats might be used by Tshombe to start another civil war. Mobutu lived up to his prom ise. He made available four transport planes to fly Kisangani's 2,500 gendarmes and their...
...Beer Trucks. That was not exactly what the Kats had in mind. They had been methodically looting Kisangani's shops. To haul away their booty, the gendarmes demanded not planes but trucks. They should have left well enough alone, for Mobutu fortnight ago turned the new dispute into an excuse to go back on his word. Instead of sending them trucks, he ordered his army to surround Kisangani and crush the Kats once...
First there were the white mercenaries hired by Mobutu's predecessor and enemy, Moise Tshombe, a tough gang of Belgians, Frenchmen, anti-Castro Cubans and English colonials, all with ties of loyalty to Tshombe. Then there were the 2,500 Katangese "gendarmes," whose fiery red-and-yellow scarves and flashing bush knives had figured in every Congolese conflict since the Tshombe secession of 1960. Finally there was ex-General Mobutu's own Armee Nationale Congolaise, inefficient as fighters but at least loyal to his government. Fearful of disarming or disbanding the "Kats," who might stir up trouble back...
Over the months, the Katangese and the A.N.C. troops grew to hate each other largely because the Mobutu men lorded it over the Kats and took all the cold beer and prettiest girls. Two months ago, the gendarmes went "on strike," nabbed A.N.C. Colonel Joseph Damien Tshatshi (known in the Congo as "Tshatshi the Terrible"), sent him back to headquarters in his underwear. Angry and alarmed, A.N.C. Commander Louis Bobozo decided that the time had come to disarm the Kats. When he tried to implement his decision two weeks ago, all hell broke loose in Stanleyville (now called Kisangani...
...Kinshasa (formerly Leopoldville), President Mobutu believed otherwise. Charging that some of the white mercenaries-principally Belgians of the 6th Commando-were behind the mutiny, he fired off angry charges to Brussels and sent Premier Leonard Mulamba to Stanleyville to calm the mutineers. At week's end, Mulamba reported from the rebellious city that the mercenaries were not involved in the mutiny. But 6th Commando Boss Robert Denard, a magnificently mustachioed Frenchman who served Tshombe in the secession, was on the scene, and no one could say for certain that Mulamba's disclaimer had not been uttered at mercenary...