Trouble for the Mercenaries; Help for the Rebels

For more than a month, the main target of the Congo's two mercenary rescue columns had been the town of Wamba, where rebel Simbas were known to be holding some 250 white hostages. Last week the mercenaries finally made it to Wamba, and what they found confirmed their worst fears. Though 121 whites were still alive, another 28 had been brutally massacred. Most of the dead were Belgians -- including Monsignor Joseph-Pierre Albert Wittebols, Bishop of Wamba. Most of the survivors were Greeks -- who had paid for their lives with cash and cooperation.

"Mad Mike." Bishop Wittebols, 26 Belgian priests and laymen were slain on the day of the para drop at nearby Paulis. According to survivors, the Simbas raced around screeching "Kill, kill, kill them all!" The Belgians were shot, clubbed to death or tied up and hurled alive into the Wamba River. But that was killing with kindness compared to the fate of American Protestant Missionary William McChesney, 28. They performed a mad war dance on his prostrate body until internal bleeding from ruptured organs ended his agony. Then the Simbas plucked out his eyes and threw his corpse into the river.

The Wamba massacre brought to nearly 200 the total of whites killed since the Belgian-American para drop on Stanleyville last November, and left at least 90 more whites still in rebel hands. The Wamba rescue brought to an end one major phase of mercenary activity, and with it came bad news. South African Mercenary Commander Michael Hoare flew back to Leopoldville to inform Congolese Premier Moise Tshombe that he did not plan to renew his six-month contract. With starchy, spit-and-polish "Mad Mike" threatening to issue his last harrumph, other battle-hardened officers in Tshombe's dwindling mercenary force talked bitterly of quitting with him.

They do not relish the prospect of serving under another South African, Lieut. Colonel Jeremiah Puren, an unpopular officer who has been in charge of the little mercenary air force, and who in six short months has insinuated himself into increasing overall control of the mercenaries. In any case, as mercenary boss, Puren will have to combat not only antipathy among his own men but an increasingly wellarmed, well-trained rebellion. Fully 18 planeloads of arms and ammunition from Algeria, Egypt and Ghana have already passed through the Sudan to the Simbas.

Last week, in a blistering letter to the U.N. Security Council, Tshombe charged that in addition to arms, Egypt and Algeria were also sending officers to operate with the rebels "along the entire length of the Congo's northeastern frontier." Though Tshombe could produce no concrete evidence that the outsiders had actually crossed into the Congo to lead Simba troops, intelligence sources several weeks ago identified an Algerian officer in the Burundi capital of Bujumbura, where Congolese rebels long maintained their eastern headquarters. Some 40 "Arabs," who may be Algerian officers, are reported to be standing by at Juba in the southern Sudan.

Tshombe wanted the Security Council to denounce outside intervention. Instead, the Council responded with a resolution that would hardly please the Congo's Premier. It demanded an immediate cease-fire by both rebels and government troops. Recalling his own state of mind during the Katanga secession, Moise was not about to give his enemies a breather. He himself had used U.N. cease-fires to recoup losses and prepare new attacks.

"Little Hitlers." Far to the west, in Brazzaville Congo, a German known as Slimane Hoffmann, who now works for Algeria, is reported training 800 rebel commandos for use against the Leopoldville government. An incursion from Brazzaville could open a strategically valuable second front for the rebels and ultimately cut off Leopoldville from the sea. Brazzaville's President, Alphonse Massamba-Debat, would be glad enough to help: in his year-end radio message, he praised Red China, Ghana, Algeria and Egypt and muttered darkly about "little Hitlers" in Leopoldville. As if for emphasis, Massamba-Debat delivered the last page of his address twice.

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