The Congo: Ultimatum from Bukavu

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When the Congo's white mercenaries revolted last month, it seemed hardly possible that their rebellion could end in anything but defeat. The "meres," after all, number only 160 men, backed up by 1,500 or so dissident Katangese troops, while President Joseph Mobutu's Congolese National Army is 30,000 strong. Moreover, the rebel commander, Major Jean Schramme, is not a soldier; he is a Belgian plantation owner who has lived in the Congo for 23 of his 36 years. But last week it was "Black Jack" Schramme and his mercenaries who held the upper hand.

Emerging from their stronghold in the plantation country near Punia, Schramme and his men began a march on the border city of Bukavu, once a resort for rich Belgian colonials. They met little resistance. Warned by jungle telegraph that the mercenaries were approaching, the defenders of Bukavu threw away their arms, commandeered civilian clothes, and fled across the Ruzizi River into Rwanda.

Schramme quickly cashed in on his conquest. After establishing his headquarters in Bukavu's Royal Residence Hotel, he set up a "government of public safety" headed by a Katangese captain, and made sure that 300 white civilian refugees from the fighting were escorted safely across the border into Rwanda. Then he issued an ultimatum giving Mobutu ten days in which to negotiate for peace. Among Schramme's terms: that Mobutu return democratic government to the Congo, annul the treason conviction of ex-President Tshombe (who is now in an Algerian jail awaiting extradition) and make Tshombe a member of the Cabinet.

In Kinshasa, Mobutu immediately rejected the ultimatum and said that he would "never stoop to negotiate with assassins." If he does not change his mind, warned Schramme, "I'll take measures of a greater scope. We are in a position of strength. We have shown that the Congolese National Army is incapable of defeating us. Who knows, I could even go so far as launching an offensive against Kinshasa."

Such a step seems unlikely, if for no other reason than that the Congolese capital is 1,000 miles from Bukavu. But unless Schramme gets his way, he may be tempted to march southward into Katanga, where the great copper mines supply most of the Congo's wealth and the tribesmen still revere the man who led the Congo's first armed revolt, Moise Tshombe of Katanga.