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Packwood says
U.S. blackmailed
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bob Packwood says the Carter
administration has let itself be blackmailed by Saudi Arabia s oil
power into betraying Israel. .
The Oregon Republican likened Carter s sale of F-15 jet fight
ers to Saudi Arabia to the appeasement of Hitler at Munich.
However, Packwood said Wednesday that he did not mean to
equate the Saudis and the Nazis.
"I only likened the jet sale to Munich in the sense that I thought
we should have learned something from history,” he said. “Those
that are in a position to blackmail us are never satisfied with just
the first response. The F-15s will no be the last demand from
Saudi Arabia **
Packwood said that in general he thought Carter has done a
poorer job than Pres. Nixon, Ford or Johnson on foreign policy.
“At least with Lyndon Johnson in Vietnam, you knew what his
policy was,” said Packwood.
He also criticized the administration for being weak and indeci
sive when dealing with the Cubans in Africa, overly generous with
Russia in the SALT talks and stingy with the Defense Department
budget.
Survivor says Zairian soldiors saviors
KINSHASA, Zaire (AP) — An American
who survived a week of terror in Kolwezi,
Zaire, says he and more than a dozen other
whites owe their lives to Zairian soldiers
who convinced a mob to spare some of the
captives.
Rick Black, 42, a Zambia resident origi
nally from Los Angeles, said he, his
girlfriend Jenny, and other whites were
saved by a contingent of captured Zairian
soldiers who had spent several days with
them in a Kolwezi police station.
Black told his story Wednesday at Kinsh
asa airport, before he boarded an airplane
leaving the country — one of hundreds of
Europeans and Americans rescued by
French and Belgian soldiers after being
caught in an attack by Katanganese rebels
against Zaire’s mineral-rich Shaba pro
vince.
Black said the Zairians performed the res
cue on May 17, when a mob stormed the
police station in apparent anger over the
arrival of French paratroopers.
He said, “Jenny was last inside and be
fore we could close the door she had been
grabbed by one arm. I said, ‘Oh, my God,
no,’ and grabbed her arm and pulled her
away and dosed the door behind her."
Black said the Zairian soldiers donned
civilian clothes and convinced the mob to
leave. French paratroopers eventually
freed the group.
Black said that on Saturday, May 13, the
day the rebels stormed the city, he, Jenny
and several other whites hid in the wine
cellar of their hotel.
Through a ventilation strip they watched
the rebels take other guests away and loot
the hotel. The rebels tried to break into the
cellar several times, but Black barricaded
the door with wine cases.
Finally, Monday afternoon the group de
cided to make contact with rebels. They
were taken to a police station in the black
section of town where 30 Zairian troops and
12 other whites were being held.
He said one rebel had a list of Gecamines
copper mine employees and released five
whites who were on it.
On Tuesday, Black said, several more
whites left. Then on Wednesday—the day
of the murder of more than 30 whites at a
Zairian army command post — several
bloodsoaked and hysterical survivors were
brought to the police station.
Black said the rebels were kind to the
children and fed the captives, but the terror
resumed on Friday morning wnen n«nu.
paratroopers arrived on their rescue mis
sion.
“At midday, the one remaining rebel
guard disappeared but we were afraid to
leave,” Black said. “At four, we saw
parachutists coming into the city.
“Shortly after, a large number of blacks
came screaming and yelling and we
thought they were rejoicing that the rebels
had gone.
“But as they came nearer we heard them
chanting, “We’re free, we're free, long live
the tigers,” the name used by the rebels.
The rumor had spread that Cubans were
coming and the Africans thought the
parachutists were the Cubans, Black said.
It was when the rebels discovered the sol
diers were French that they stormed the jail.
U.S. considers economic options tor z.aire
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Carter administration is consider
ing a list of options, none of them
very promising, for helping bring
stability to Zaire, a friendly country
which looks increasingly like an
international cripple.
The country is plagued by cor
ruption and inefficiency,
threatened by rebels based in An
gola, and teetering on the verge of
bankruptcy, State Department Af
rican experts say privately.
Meanwhile, White House
spokesman Jody Powell said
Wednesday that top Carter ad
ministration officials have discus
sed the possibility of U.S. aid for
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guerrillas fighting the Cuban
backed regime in Angola.
But Powell said Carter hasn’t
yet decided whether to seek re
peal of a congressional prohibition
against any such move.
Though the United States,
France, Belgium and other allies
plan to discuss coordinated ap
proaches to the problems Zaire
faces, one State Department offi
cial says there seems to be little
that can be done to prevent a bad
situation from getting worse.
“Before this whole thing hap
pened, the country was crippled
i
anyway,” said one policymaker,
referring to this month’s invasion
of Shaba province by Katangan
rebels.
The rebels heavily damaged
Shaba’s major copper-mining
facilities, which are Zaire’s major
source of foreign exchange. Re
ports reaching the department in
dicate it will take at least two or
three months to get the mines
operating, if Zaire can persuade
European technicians to return
and help fix them. It could take
longer than that without outside
help.
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An interruption in cooper ex
ports is the last thing Zaire’s shaky
economy needs. The country
owes about $2.6 billion to Western
banks and governments, and has
fallen way behind in its payments.
A consortium of banks, headed
by Citibank of New York, was in
the process of putting together a
$220 million loan for Zaire to help
it improve its industrial base and
pay back its debts.
“The bankers won’t loan the
money unless they are convinced
it is the only way to save their pre
vious investments,” an official
said.