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: <guardian@peg.apc.org>  Subscription rates on request)
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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.
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* With acknowledgement to the "Guardian Weekly" (26/1/97) and
"Third World Guide 93/94" for background material in this
article.


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