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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (July 18, 1963)
8 B Tshomrobe Could Still Lead GCatamiga .... By TIM KNIGHT United Presi International Elisabethvllle, The Congo -(DPI) - At 3:30 p.m. on June 14, Moise Tshombe fled Katanga on his way to Paris and polit ical exile. Katanga's secession attempt was over and its president fin ished. Or so it seemed to the small knot of supporters who stood on the dusty airstrip at Kipushi, watching the light blue Cessna disappear over Rhodesia. Yet nothing is ever certain In the Congo, and Moise Tshombe could still return to try to lead Katanga to inde pendence. The United Nations may have to leave The Congo soon, or go bankrupt. There would then be nothing to pre vent Tshombe flying back to continue the fight where he left off. Look For Miracle Tshombe mounted the Tiger of Ambition" eagerly let it carry him ever nearer to his goal, speeding faster and faster to success. When, last, he saw the dangers of the road he had chosen, it was fa too late to dismount. He could only ride on fearfully, hoping desperately for a miracle The miracle never came Tshombe failed, a.id had pay the cost. to He paid the first installment on the morning of Jan. 14 1963, In the rich Katangcsc mining town of Kolwoizi when he announced to the world that Katanga's seces- (ion attempt was over. For the burly president, dream was over too. He had fought the United Nations and the central Congolese govern ment tor tnree years and now he reluctantly admitted de feat. The world sighed with re lief. Katanga Broken Up Within weeks, the central government started to break up Katanga into three prov inces, taking more than half of its enormous copper re serves away from Tshombe's control. Tshombe was paying the second instalment on the cost of failure, and could only ehrug angrily, helplessly, while Leopoldville carved up his beloved Katanga. Young Moise (Moses) want ed to be something more than Just another African under Belgium's harsh colonial rule. As he grew older, his ambi tion spread to include first his own Lunda tribe, then Katanga. Starting as a council mem bcr for Elisabethville's Af rican township at 28, Tshombe moved confidently into the complex and often danger ous world of African poli tics under the Belgians. Became) A war. of Views As the years went by, the Belgians became increasingly aware of his moderate views and willingness to take advice. They regarded Mm as a "good" African, and Tshombe was careful to foster this view. But inevitably, as he mixed with them, his own per sonality changed, and he be came more Belgian than Af rican In many ways. He also never lost the habit of listen Kg t I .! i k CAPE COD CANVAS CASUALS All colors Sizes 4-10 REDUCED TO THONG gfsf , , N-ni11. styid in itsiy. lCryry Vldy?5IjIjSk V Choose from white, Jill i Italian n m tl L other popular colors, m including gold. I " B REDUCED TO U"C7 j THURSDAY. JULY 18. 1963 ing to Belgian advice He spoke French fluently, good Portuguese and a little English, as well as nine Af rican languages. He learned how to use a language, how to sway a listener. Less than a year before the Belgians gave the Congo in dependence, Tshombe became a leader of the Conakat party. Early in June, I960, he was elected to the First African Katangcsc Provincial Assem bly and on June 16, during an all-night sitting, Moise Tshombe was elected presi dent of Katanga. Me was 42 To Highest Position He had risen to the highest position in Katanga, but to be president of a province was not enough. On the last day of June, the Belgians handed over the reins of government to the Congolese, and the Republic of The Congo, was born Eleven days later, Tshombe declared Katanga an indc pendent sovereign state out side The Congo. An official Katangcsc Infor mation ministry release dated October, I960, declared grand ly: "One may say that this solemn act saved the Katanga from anarchy and disorder. It also split the West, cost the U.N. $300 million and, even tually, drove Tshombe into exile. Why did he secede? Had Seen Mutiny He had seen the Central Congolese army mutiny and 28,000 heavily armed troops start an orgy of killing which tlircatcned to end law and order in the Congo, perhaps forever. In his own province of Katanga, he moved swiftly, calling in Belgian paratroop ers based inside the province to disarm the army and return all non-Katangcse to their homes. The troubles lasted only a few days. Thousands died in the Congo before the U.N., re sponding to a government ap peal, came in and restored order. Tshombe feared more violence in his own province v r ad! v W V AJI LARGE FAMILY These three kittens are the 126th, 127th and 128th offspring of Fluffy, a cat who resides at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Richardson, 2133 Crater Lake avc. Fluffy, a Persian cat with long while hair, will be 12 years old in December. She averages between live and seven kit tens, twice a year. Nine is the most she has hod at one time. U V L v.. Men's COTTON 230 East Main OPEN There are over 300 1-1 OCHIYILCM NILUNi . . 77 O 7V unless he effectively cut It off from its neighbors. He had already made one minor attempt to secede, and when he saw the Congo in flames he did what he thought to be best for Katanga, and for himself. He could not know that the decision would cost thousands of lives most of them Katangcse. (The U.N. put its own death toll since mid-July, 1960, at 127 officers and men killed in action, nearly all of them fighting to end Katanga's secession. When Katanga seceded from The Congo, the long, bit ter fight to end its breakaway began. Conferences were called promises made, angry words exchanged, but there was no progress. Tshombe was hang ing on to independence and much of the western world unofficially backed his stand, Attend Conference Then, In April, 1961 Tshombe attended a Congo lese leaders' conference in Coquilhatvllle, called to dis cuss re-unification of The Congo, and was arrested on treason charges by the central government. Six weeks later he was re leased, proclaiming he would form a common front against Communism with the Leo poldville government. But the arrest deepened his distrust of the central government and strengthened his determina tion to continue secession. Tshombe's mercenaries once known as "Les Affreux rne Frigmiul ones -pro vided an essential backbone for the newly formed Katan gcse army and, frequently, an effective mobile striking force on their own. Mercenaries Well Trained When the first Katanga war started on Sept. 13, 1961 the mercenaries were strong and reasonably well-trained. The army had been whipped into some sort of shape in the 14 months since secession and was as ready as it would ever be. The U.N. believed it would meet only token resistance, v ; i -r : DRASTIC REDUCTIONS IN ALL DEPARTMENTS! FABULOUS SALE STLL IN PROGRESS First Quality I Prillirpn iiumiiA I or STRETCH SOX 3 PR.97c Phone 773-9081 FRIDAY NIGHTS Karl's Shoe Storei in the weit and badly underestimated Katangan determination. U.N. Chief Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien believed that once the mercenaries were out of the way, Tshombe's white advis ers would be arrested and the secession ended. But the at tack was badly planned and Tshombe and his interior min ister, "strong man" Godefroid Munongo, evaded arrest. Suddenly, in an effort to end the firing, U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold agreed to meet Tshombe in Ndola, Northern Rhodesia. On Sept. 17, 1961, Hammar skjold's aircraft crashed into the bush a few miles from Ndola and he was killed. Four days later, Tshombe ordered a cease-fire after the U.N. had agreed to do the same. He had forced an hon orable draw, th Katangcse army had been blooded, and the mercenaries and advisers were still there. After the shame of his de t e n t i o n at Leopoldville, Tshombe had proved himself a worthy leader of the Katangese. Cheering crowds followed him wherever he went. The next war was just two months away. At the begin ning of December, Tshombe left Elisabethvllle for a con ference in Rio Je Janeiro. He heard of fighting while on his way there and returned to his Not v:..v-! ..k-W-&-wm ' mm-- - - - M m m i mt a wr m capital to find the U.N. sur rounding it and the Katangese army fleeing into the bush. The mercenaries were no where to be seen. The story of the next two years is a dreary succession of misunderstandings, broken promises and mounting U.N. desperation. As soon as the second war was lost, Tshombe began the long series of nego tiations with the central gov ernment and the U.N. which only ended with his surrender in January, 1963. He left Elisabethville for Northern Rhodesia when it was obvious that his army could no longer hold out against the U.N. The chast ened president was on his way to Kitona at the mouth of the Congo river to meet the prime minister of the cen tral government, Cyrille Adoula. Soon came the official an nouncement: Tshombe had agreed to renounce his seces sionist policies, rejoin The Congo republic and recognize the authority of the central Congolese president, Joseph Kasavubu. The president returned to Elisabethville and shortly af terwards flew to Leopoldville for the second time since inde pendence, after U.N. guaran tees for his personal safety. He was taking no chances of being arrested again. 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MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON Tshombe had to take part in a bitter struggle with the cen tral government in which the winner would take all, and whoever came second would lose everything. Tshombe knew it, and Pre mier Adoula knew it. There was r.u turning back lor Tshombe now. He had gone too far to compromise. Close to Bankruptcy In Leopoldville, Adoula's government staggered closer to bankruptcy every month. In Elisabethville, between trips to The Congo capital, Tshombe smiled blandly and talked of how much he was looking forward to -re-joining The Congo but not right now. Time was running out rap idly. The U.N.'s Congo costs were mounting and the mem ber nations squirmed uncom fortably under the tide of anti-U.N. feeling. Some of them refused to pay their share of the costs. The U.N. chief in Leopold vile, Ghanian Robert Gard iner, prepared a plan to seize control of Katanga on Jan. 15, 1963. Unexpected firing broke out on the morning of Dec. 24 as Elisabethville was prepar ing for a quiet Christmas. It's believed that U.N. Ethiopian troops fired on Katangese soldiers at the Lubumbashi HAPPY CAMP-Klamath Hardware MONTAGUE C. I. Churchill & Son OREGON to flradependeinice - r Knf a four slag heap, just outside the town because of a misunder standing. U.N. Determined This time it was for real. The U.N. was determined to crush Tshombe and forcibly lead Katanga back into the Congo. The only question was: would the U.N. delay its at tack until Jan. 15 as planned, or begin the take-over imme diately? The Katangese army solved the problem by starting heavy firing on the night of the 27th, after two days of relative quiet. Tshombe previously had promised to call a cease-fire, after U.N. senior officers es corted him around the battle areas and forced him to stand near the front line while his own troops fired on the posi tion. 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As he had known would happen, lleo gradually took most of the government's power into his own hands, and Tshombe was president in little more than name. On May 24, U.N. and Cen tral Government troops sur rounded the presidential pal ace and. ordered Tshombe to surrender his last remaining bodyguard, believed to be about 30 men. Tshombe made a last brave Up to Paint gesture of defiance, but a few hours later, the 30 guards slip ped out of the grounds dressed as civilians. Tshombe was finished. On May 29, when he learned that the central government had seized documents implicating him in another secession at tempt, Tshombe fled from Elisabethville in secret, mak ing for Kapanga, deep in Lunda territory. Sixteen days later, he boarded a light air craft at Kipushi on the Katanga-Rhodesia border and went into exile. AUTOMATIC Transmissions Exclusively .kHC THANES (BTRfil Minor or Major Repairs Factory Units in Stock 100 Financing MEDFORD TRANSMISSION REBUILDERS 3540 N. Pic. 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