Mercenaries' Leader Talks Like Missionary

Mercenaries' Leader Talks Like Missionary
August 11, 1967
August 1967
Bukavu, The Congo
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Belgian Says Congo Rebellion Has Roots in Need for Representative Government - Col. Jean Schramme, who has shattered the Congo's fragile political stability by leading white mercenaries to a rout of the Congolese army, is a slight, diffident-seeming Belgian who talks in the idealistic tones of a peace-loving missionary. Here, in the eastern Congo city that he rules, he told a few newsmen, who had walked across the bridge Thursday from neighboring Rwanda, that his five-week rebellion had its roots in the need of the Congo for representative government and economic development. He seemed to want to play down reports that the main aim of his mercenaries was the release of their grand patron, Moise Tshombe, who is in prison in Algiers. Instead, he talked about the place that Tshombe should have in a representative government. "I think Tshombe is the representative of the Katangese people," he said. "But that's just my opinion." Then Schramme had his one truculent moment in the interview...
Belgian Says Congo Rebellion Has Roots in Need for Representative Government - Col. Jean Schramme, who has shattered the Congo's fragile political stability by leading white mercenaries to a rout of the Congolese army, is a slight, diffident-seeming Belgian who talks in the idealistic tones of a peace-loving missionary. Here, in the eastern Congo city that he rules, he told a few newsmen, who had walked across the bridge Thursday from neighboring Rwanda, that his five-week rebellion had its roots in the need of the Congo for representative government and economic development. He seemed to want to play down reports that the main aim of his mercenaries was the release of their grand patron, Moise Tshombe, who is in prison in Algiers. Instead, he talked about the place that Tshombe should have in a representative government. "I think Tshombe is the representative of the Katangese people," he said. "But that's just my opinion." Then Schramme had his one truculent moment in the interview...
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