Mercenaries to rescue imperialism in Zaire? (The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, February 19th, 1997. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: Subscription rates on request) ****************************** As the liberation struggles of the African people intensify in Central African states -- in Rwanda and Zaire in particular -- mercenaries are being recruited to prop up the despicable Mobutu government which has violently suppressed the people of Zaire for decades at the command of the western imperialist countries. His dictatorship has been maintained in power by the guns and money of France, Belgium and the US in particular. Leading the motley band of white mercenaries now being sent into Zaire are ex-army and intelligence officers from Belgium and France who have close connections to these governments. They are desperate to maintain their control of the rich mineral, agricultural and timber wealth of central African countries. Another force involved is called "Executive Outcomes" which is described by the British "Guardian Weekly" as "the world's first fully equipped corporate army". Guns for hire This murky organisation has been conducting "guns for hire" and business operations in a number of African countries. It was registered in Britain in 1993 by a Mr Buckingham, a British businessman and Simon Mann, a former British Officer. Mr Buckingham is chief executive of Heritage Oil and Gas and is linked with the Canadian oil corporation, Ranger Oil. Other business interests include gold and diamond mining ventures, a chartered accountancy practice, an airline, foreign security services and off-shore financial management services. A British intelligence document says of Executive Outcomes that it is able to barter its services for large shares of an employing nation's natural resources and commodities. "On present showing, Executive Outcomes will become ever richer and more potent, capable of exercising real power, even to the extent of keeping military regimes in being. If it continues to expand at the present rate, its influence in sub-Saharan Africa could become crucial", says the British intelligence report. Zaire, formerly the Belgian Congo, is one of the richest imperialist prizes in the whole of Africa. Its independence was nominally achieved in 1960 when an independent government with Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister was established. But Lumumba was soon murdered by assassins in the pay of the Belgians. Mobutu, the Zairean army commander, came to power in 1965 as "the only representative of the transnationals in a position to restore the conditions required for them to continue operating there."* At that time mercenaries, Belgian troops and US logistical support combined to suppress the Zairean liberation movement. Zaire, under Mobutu assisted the CIA and South African apartheid- backed Savimbi forces in their attempts to overthrow the liberation government of Angola. In the 1978-79 period opposition to Mobutu's bloody rule in Zaire led to armed insurrection but it was put down by French and Belgian paratroopers and Moroccan and Egyptian troops with US logistical support. Rich minerals Zaire is the world's largest exporter of cobalt, the fourth largest diamond exporter and is among the top ten producers of uranium, copper, manganese and tin. Ninety per cent of the cobalt used in the US aerospace industry comes from Zaire. Zaire was designated by the CIA as one of the five third world countries which could not be allowed to escape US control so as not to risk seriously affecting the supply of strategic minerals for the US arms industry. To cement imperialism's control the economy of Zaire was taken over directly by the IMF in the 1980s. The Fund's representative in Kinshasa -- the capital city of Zaire -- began to supervise the country's accounts personally. In June 1989, Mobutu met US President Bush in Washington and obtained a loan of US$20 million from the World Bank. The Reagan administration had channelled US$15 million of covert aid for Angolan mercenaries through Zaire. Mobutu had become an "indispensable" ally of the US. In the early 1990s popular anger towards the Mobutu government again surfaced and, under pressure from the US and other countries, Mobutu was forced to make some "democratic" concessions. The imperialist countries were fearful that unless some concessions were made, Mobutu would be toppled. Intervention In 1991 more disturbances erupted following steep price rises and the dishonesty of the "democratic reforms". Again French and Belgian troops intervened allegedly to "protect their nationals" in Zaire. Using the pretext of refugees from Rwanda as an excuse and under cover of the United Nations the western powers attempted last year to knock together a force to once again openly intervene in Rwanda and Zaire. But this plan fell flat when most of the refugees returned voluntarily to Rwanda. However, the imperialist powers have not given up their intentions. The secret recruitment and dispatch of mercenaries, with their full knowledge and sanction, is only the latest attempt to keep control of the mineral resources of central Africa and to keep in power governments which will do their bidding. Full support should be given to the "rebels" in eastern Zaire who are spearheading the struggle to rid Zaire of decades of enslavement by Mobutu and the more than one century of imperialist domination and plunder. ************************* * With acknowledgement to the "Guardian Weekly" (26/1/97) and "Third World Guide 93/94" for background material in this article. The Guardian | Phone: (02) 9212.6855 65 Campbell Street | Fax: (02) 9281.5795 Surry Hills. 2010 | Email:guardian@peg.apc.org