Katanga Has Lure For Congolese People

Press, Volume C, Issue 29699, 18 December 1961, Page 26

Katanga Has Lure For Congolese People

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter) ELISABETHVILLE, Katanga. Katanga has the same lure for the Congolese people as a well stocked, undamaged luxury shop would have for the inhabitants of a gutted city.

President Moise Tshombe and his Government are increasingly conviced that the only guarantee of law and order in this part of the Congo is the continued independence of Katanga. He has a well-equipped army of 15,000 men, supported by a tiny but efficient air force, which could probably master any troops sent vast distances by a central government in Leopoldville determined to end the statehood of Katanga. His economy is flourishing as never before as trainloads of copper are sent to ports in Mozambique. In the last 12 months, about 300,000 tons of this precious mineral has been produced by Katanga’s industrial complex, which is one of the most modern in Africa. The mineral wealth of this self-proclaimed independent country is. indeed, so great that it was producing about 60 per cent, of the entire annual revenue of the former Belgian Congo before independence, on June 30, 1960. This wealth is both the strength and weakness of the Katanga The country’s rulers know that the new central government, headed by Mr Cyrille Adoula, has a priority aim—the return of the secessionist Katanga province to the administration of Leopoldville. The priority aim of President Tshombe is to foil this move by offering negotiations on his country’s role. He wants a confederal status, that is. a country having a large measure of autonomy within the framework of the Congo as a whole. His great trump card at every discussion is the obvious air of well-being in his country compared with the appalling chaos in say, the neighbouring Congolese province of Kivu The Katangese administra-

tion, still largely advised by Belgians but beginning a trend towards Africanisation, is the admiration of all who come from anywhere else in the Congo, and particularly from Leopoldville. The visitor to the Katanga realises at once that this country is a going concern. A large part of the credit for this must go to 42-year-old President Tshombe, whose detention for two months after the Coquilhatville conference in April, has lifted him from the ranks of a politician to that of a statesman-martyr. A former businessman, with evident pro-Western sympathies, he is easily approachable and shows many signs of a wide political horizon allied with toleration. His Minister of the Interior, (Mr Godefroid Munongo) is, perhaps, the perfect example of the patriot who has as watchword "My country — right or wrong.” A man of strong, often unbridled, passions, Mr Munongo has that gift of remaining alone in a crowd, which often marks out the politician of personality His integrity is unquestioned even by his enemies, and his loyalty to President Tshombe —whom he nevertheless embarrasses occasionally by his political rigidity—is unchallengable. Sorched Earth Campaign

Mr Munongo is quoted as saying that if Katanga looked like losing its independence, he would announce a “scorched earth” campaign. True or not, this is certainly within the mould of his thoughts. This man, who announced the killing of the Congo’s first Prime Minister. Mr Patrice Lumumba, startled Europeans when he announced in July that the Katanga would turn to the Soviet Union for help if the situation warranted such a move.

His words were more a shout of defiance to the West than a threat of blackmail. He told reporters gathered in his private office at the Ministry of the Interior: “We have been alone for a year—we are still alone." The isolation of the Katanga, whose independence is not recognised by any country in the world, is bound to lead to political fever at some time or other. The Soviet policy dates from

the time when President Tshombe and his Foreign Minister, (Mr Evariste Kimba) were locked up together while they were under detention. Both men toyed with the idea of declaring the Katanga “positively neutral” by appealing to both East and West Mr Munongo simply broke the news to the world. The fever seems to have evaporated as President Tshombe has turned once again to the sport of which he is a pastmaster—manoeuvring to manoeuvre. He is a firm believer that time is on his side—because he thinks that his opponents will soon fall out— and that the day will assuredly dawn when countries give at least defacto recognition of his Government. United Nations Stand An important factor in the home political situation is the stand of the United Nations, who have stationed half of all their armed contingents in the Katanga. The bulk of some 11,000 United Nations troops from Sweden, Ireland and India are posted in north Katanga, where civil war broke out in the first quarter of this year as Baluba tribesmen tried to overthrow the Tshombe Government. The railway across the area has not been fuctioning for many months, bringing its economy to the brink of ruin The United Nations claims that its troops are preventing any further outbreak of civil war in the area, while the Tshombe Government declares that peace could be completely restored “within 10 days” of the departure of the United Nations forces. A difficult situation for President Tshombe has been further complicated by the nomination of Baluba leader, Mr Jason Sendwe, to the post of deputy Prime Minister in the Adoula cabinet United Nations troops in the Katanga, commanded by brigadier Raja, of India, are successfully preventing the local gendarmerie or police from deploying in the north. Although President Tshombe is unlikely to announce that he is willing

virtually to withdraw the mandate of his Government from north Katanga. Government circles in Katanga are more or less resigned to the

eventual establishment of a “neutral zone" in this desolate area, tacitly policed by the United Nations. The big unknown factor in such a quasi-solution to the situation is what would be the reaction of Mr Sendwe. Meanwhile the life of Katanga’s capital with its 9000 Europeans, continue to see-saw between frenzied political discussion and days of apparent placidity. The wide, tree-lined boulevards of Elizabethville are thronged with big new saloon cars, and white children play with their African nurse-, maids outside the luxurious villas ot a rich commerical

and industrial community. There is plenty of money in the Katanga, and this money has a voice—the shrill cry ot a steam whistle sounding the day-and-night sever-days-a-week shifts in the nearby mines and refineries. Home is where the heart is.—Pliny the Elder. Giving calls for genius.— Ovid.