Zaire survivors tell of eight days and nights of terror

Press, 22 May 1978, Page 1

Zaire survivors tell of eight days and nights of terror

NZP A Brussels Rebels who invaded the southern Zaire town of Kolwezi last week went on a wild orgy of murder and rape, European survivors, including a New Zealand priest, have said.

The survivors said that 14 French hostages were dragged away by insurgents fleeing from French and Belgian paratroops who moved in to save more than 2000 foreigners trapped in the fighting over the mineral-rich Shaba province. At least 100 whites are reported to have been killed. The priest, who did not wish to be named, said the rebels (whom Zaire asserts are Angolan-based) had shot five persons outside his church last week. Two New Zealanders were listed by the British Foreign Office as in the Kolwezi area, but their fate or identities were not known, nor wa„ it known if the priest was one of them. More than 1500 Europeans were yesterday being ferried to safety in Brussels and Lusaka, in Zambia, in a convoy of planes; and Belgian Government officials said thev expected that the remaining whites would be out within two days. In Paris, the Defence Ministry said that French Foreign Legionnaires were in control of nearly all of Kolwezi, including the European quarter. Correspondents in Kolwezi said that, apart from the French and Belgian rescuers, the town was deserted on Saturday night (Zaire time). Accounts of what happened in Kolwezi during the eight-dav rebel occupation ’ were horrific. Survivors spoke of “eight days and nights of terror" in which men. women, and children were slaughtered. In one suburban villa, 33 whites, including women and children, were herded into a room and machinegunned to death. Survivors said the

attackers, described as Katangese gendarmes, raped a Belgian woman after slitting her husband’s throat and threatened to violate a girl, aged 10. Other reports said that many European women were raped after being separated from husbands and fathers. Correspondents saw between 15 and 20 white bodies sprawled on the tree-lined streets of the copper-mining town. The Belgian-French rescue operation was mounted after intelligence reports that the rebels who invaded from Angola on May 20 had threatened to wipe out the white community of Kowwezi — estimated to include 1400 Belgians and 400 French people, plus Greeks, Portuguese, Italians, Americans, Britons, Swiss, and two New Zealanders. The insurgents were opposed to the Zaire Government of President Mobutu Sese Seko, who visited Kolwezi again at the week-end The Brussels Government said that most of the survivors airlifted to safety were Belgians, but they included some French, Italian, Greek, American, Dutch, and Portuguese citizens. There was some confusion about the number of French hostages taken bv the rebels fleeing from Kolwezi. Although Europeans in the town said '4 had been abducted, the Belgian Defence Minister (Mr Paul van den Boeynants) told reporters that seven French military advisers had been kidnapped. He said that Belgian paratroops would try to catch up with the hostageholding rebels but would

not cross frontiers if the insurgents fled into neighbouring Angola or Zambia. In Paris, the Defence Ministry said the French paratroop “mission to reestablish security in Kolwezi can be considered to have been accomplished.” The rescue work, hailed as a success by the Belgian Prime Minister (Mr Leo Tindemans), has been marred by acrimony between Brussels and Paris over the role their troops should perform. Differences were reported within the Belgian Cabinet — there was mounting criticism that Belgian troops were used at all. A group of Leftist organisations said negotiations with rebel leaders for a peaceful evacuation of whites were well under way when the troops were ordered in.

Officials reported that one member of the 600strong French force was killed and several were slightly wounded. Rebel losses were said to be heavy — at least 30 dead, and probably more. Military sources said Zaire loyalist troops had suffered one killed and six wounded during their own assault to wrest Kolwezi from rebel control.

Mining engineers reported that the Kolwezi copper mines, vital to Zaire’s shattered economy, had been flooded because of power cuts during the occupation and would take six months to reopen. The Belgian Prime Minister told reporters that Belgian troops were helping to repair water mains blown up by the rebels before their hasty departure from Kolwezi.

"East Germans masterminded attack,” Page 8.