Winning a Round in a 'Termite War'

Like a Roman emperor at the Colosseum, Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko strutted into Kinshasa's 20th of May Stadium last week to the cheers of 60,000 of his countrymen, many of whom had just snake-danced through the streets of the capital. Waving an elaborately carved cane, he pointed contemptuously at a pair of bedraggled, badly wounded prisoners--the first, apparently, to have been captured by government forces in nearly two months of fighting against invaders in Shaba province (TIME, April 25). Mobutu's gestures brought cries of "Mort, mort," (Death, death) from the crowd. Looking as hapless as Christians facing an arena of lions, the two men were paraded before foreign newsmen and testified through interpreters that Cuba and Angola were behind the invasion by Katangese rebels, as Mobutu has claimed all along.

Nibbling Away. Taking a few prisoners does not quite mean winning a war. Nonetheless, the Zairian strongman had good reason to feel buoyant last week. Bolstered by 1,500 crack Moroccan troops, le Guide's forces appeared at last to have won a round in a murky conflict that some Africans have dubbed "the Termite War." Neither side seemed able to do any more than nibble away at the other. But last week government troops not only halted the advance of the ragtag invasion army toward Kolwezi, the center of Zaire's copper-mining district, but also took the initiative for the first time. By week's end, government spokesmen were claiming that "a general offensive against all enemy positions" was under way with the primary purpose of recapturing the towns of Mutshatsha and Kapanga.

Most of the battlefield gains seem to have been made by the Moroccans. In part, though, the lift in Zaire's fortunes was due to the fact that Mobutu belatedly shipped additional pay, food and weapons to his 4,000 soldiers in Shaba. In the interests of boosting their morale, he made a rather bizarre request of Washington: that some 16,000 cases of canned Coca-Cola be included in the $15 million in "nonlethal" military equipment the U.S. is sending to Zaire. It seems that potable water for the thirsty soldiers is in short supply in Shaba, while Zaire's own Coca-Cola plants produce the soft drink only in bottles, which could easily break en route to Shaba. (When the State Department flatly rejected Mobutu's request for the Cokes, he placed an order through normal commercial channels.)

Mobutu also unveiled a remarkable secret weapon in the war: pygmy power. Some 150 "expert pygmy bowmen" --as a Zairian official described them --were sent to Shaba to infiltrate enemy lines. The diminutive tribesmen (average height under 5 ft.) were praised by one government newspaper as "formidably efficient units who can move silently and well against the enemy." Although they were issued rifles, most pygmies prefer carrying home-made bows that shoot arrows whose tips are coated with a lethal drug (derived from local plants), which kills the monkeys that they hunt for food. Skeptical foreign correspondents could not resist joking that the rebels had suffered "a bay of pygmies," and that the tiny warriors had skewered the enemy from their hiding posts in clumps of crabgrass.

In a singular display of gall, Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev last week warned other nations against "meddling" in the Zairian war. Although there is no proof of direct Soviet involvement, it seems more and more certain that the Katangese rebels were armed and aided by Moscow's client, Angola, if not by the Cubans in that country.

The two prisoners put on display by Mobutu reported that they had entered Zaire from Angola, accompanied by 45 Cubans, who quickly departed once the Moroccans arrived on the scene. The Zaire government claimed to have discovered a cache of 6,000 boxes of arms and ammunition--most of it Soviet-made. In Marrakesh, Morocco's King Hassan II insisted that his troops had found evidence of Cuban and white Angolan presence in Shaba. Despite the Carter Administration's cautious approach to events in Zaire, a U.S. official in Washington admitted last week that "at the very least, the Russians are passively letting their Cuban clients encourage the Angolans to make mischief."

Amin's Assurance. Only a handful of Western newsmen have been allowed into Shaba. Thus, reports TIME Correspondent Lee Griggs from Kinshasa, foreign diplomats remain skeptical of the government's military claims. Nonetheless, Mobutu's forces may have stabilized the conflict--if only because the invaders showed last week that they can fight as poorly as the Zairians have. Moreover, the Angolans and Cubans may decide it is not worth risking greater involvement in Shaba now that Mobutu is receiving help from abroad.

For one thing, King Hassan said that he was ready to send additional troops to Zaire. For another, some of the French planes that were involved in the airlift of the Moroccans have been shifted to bases in Senegal and Chad; they can return to Zaire on short notice. Then there is also the possibility of reinforcements from neighboring Uganda, whose mercurial dictator, Idi Amin Dada, suddenly turned up in Kinshasa last week to assure le Guide of military help if needed. Mobutu's government is gradually winning moral backing from other African states. If there is one issue on which African leaders seem ready to unite, it is in defense of national territorial integrity on the continent and the inviolability of all borders. Reason: very few African states are not vulnerable to attacks by disappointed secessionists or embittered political exiles.

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