Impressive as the mercenaries may look, they’ve been lucky to hold out against rebels who have seized a large chunk of eastern Zaire. Since Zairean Prime Minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo announced a counteroffensive four weeks ago, the government and its hired guns have suffered defeat after defeat. The mercenaries–an estimated 200 Serbs, a few Ukrainian pilots and a handful of Frenchmen and Belgians–haven’t helped much. They’ve remained in Kisangani while the rebels, mostly Zairean Tutsis backed by Rwanda and Uganda, extended their control. Two weeks ago the insurgents took the strategic port of Kalemie on Lake Tanganyika, giving them a foothold in the mineral-rich and historical- ly volatile Shaba province. Last week they took Isoro, just 185 miles northeast of Kisangani, Zaire’s third largest city. ““The time is over when a couple of white guys can take over an African country,’’ says a Western military expert.
Or preserve one. These dogs of war are on a short leash. The Ukrainians have piloted the Hinds and Macchis on bomb- ing sorties over rebel areas. But according to Zairean officers, armed forces Chief of Staff Marc Mahele has refused to let the Serbs take part in combat. Another problem: the Serbs don’t speak French. The only mercenaries to leave Kisangani were a few dozen French and Belgian mercenaries under the command of Christian Tavernier, an old-school mercenary born in what was then called the Belgian Congo. One of the original affreux (““dreaded ones’’), he has helped President Mobutu Sese Seko crush several indigenous rebellions since the 1960s. But three weeks ago rebels drove Tavernier and his men from the town of Watsa. While the Zairean soldiers retreated on foot to Kisangani, the Europeans were choppered out. Military sources say the whites did not even engage in combat at Watsa. ““Michel,’’ 26, a Frenchman recruited to serve under Tavernier for $5,000 a month, said the mercenaries were given antiquated weapons and enjoyed little support from Zairean troops. ““The counteroffensive is not going well,’’ he told NEWSWEEK.
Elsewhere in Africa a new generation of mercenaries has fared better. This month an Orwellianly named South African firm, Executive Outcomes, pulled out of Sierra Leone, having forced a rebel army to make peace with the government. The same firm, made up of black and white former members of South Africa’s apartheid-era counterinsurgency forces, also takes credit for taming the UNITA movement of Jonas Savimbi in Angola. The company’s CEO, Eeben Barlow, told NEWSWEEK he can’t work in Zaire because of an agreement with Angola, but that in any case he’s not interested. ““It’s very hard to train an army if the local people are against them,’’ he said.
That’s what the Serbs clearly are discovering on the muddy banks of the Zaire River, in Kisangani. Just a few months ago, untamed Zairean troops rampaged through the town, but now that little stands between the rebels and Kisangani, local attention seems focused on the nearing action to the east. Zairean officers admit that the population has good reason to hate them for their past abuses and corruption. They worry that as the rebels approach, the local population may rise to join the rebels’ cause. ““A lot of Zaireans are just looking for a change,’’ says a Western diplomat, ““and any change is good. People are happy to help the rebels get rid of the Zairean Army.''
New AK-47s: ““There is a momentum, but this isn’t a blitzkrieg. It’s not Germany cutting through France,’’ says a military observer. ““You’ll see the rebels progress through Haut Zaire and Shaba (provinces). The attack on Kisangani is inevitable.’’ Experts say that could come in two weeks or two months–more likely the latter. The rebels had said they would spare the Rwandan Hutu refugee camp at Tingi Tingi (containing an estimated 130,000 to 250,000 refugees, an unknown percentage of whom are alleged to have been involved in the 1994 Tutsi genocide). But last week the rebels again raised aid workers’ fears of further humanitarian disasters by accusing the government of staging attacks from Tingi Tingi. ““The rebels’ push has gone far beyond its original intention, which was to close the refugee camps’’ on Rwanda’s border, says a diplomat. ““It’s too early to say if this is a national uprising, but this thing has taken on a life of its own.''
At the weekend, there were omens of greater turmoil. In the Zairean capital, the government declared public demonstrations illegal and promised to charge anyone caught protesting or striking with treason. Video images from Uvira, the first town rebels captured last October, showed beaming rebel commander Laurent Kabila inspecting new recruits wearing brand-new uniforms and brandishing AK-47s as they sang. Again, Kabila declared he would bring Mobutu’s 31-year reign to an end. The dictator clearly will need more than the hired help to make him a liar.
