Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 00:34:56 +0200 (MET DST)
Subject: M-G: Congo: Assaults on foreigners part of a plan?


Congo: Assaults on foreigners part of a plan?
[Posted: 13.05.97]

It was neither in the (US) IHT nor on CNN, but in the FAZ
(Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany) of today (GMT; by
CET it's already tomorrow here) you could read that in Kinshasa
(ex-Léopoldville), Congo/Zaire, where the inhabitants have
been advised by the closing-in liberation army the AFDL
(aka "the rebels") to stay indoors from tomorrow on,
robbery assaults on foreigners by soldiers of the old regime
are now since some time "on the order of the day".

This according to "information from diplomatic circles", the
FAZ said. And these attacks were, according to that same
bourgeois newspaper, "most probably" due to the "general
chaos". It notes however that "the rebels" are maintaining
that it's ordered by the Mobutu government in order to provoke
a Western (mainly US, then) military intervention. "Of this
there is no proof".

I think it may be of interest to note this piece of information
at this point anyway.

The US representative Richardson, who for some reason or
other has been engaging in "diplomacy" in the region - isn't
the USA separated from it by a vast stretch of ocean? - is on
record as having said recently that the next few days will
see decisive events in Congo/Zaire.

Rolf M.



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