1997 Mercenaries (Newsweek report)

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.