White Troops, Buoyed by Escapade, Grow Testy From Uncertainty in Congo - The white mercenaries who rule this city in defiance of Congolese President Joseph D. Mobutu and his army are a group of confident and prideful men from many lands who are growing tired these days and testy with each other. Their confidence and pride comes from their extraordinary escapade of the last five weeks in which they have disrupted the eastern Congo and routed the Congolese army. Their fatigue and bickering comes from the pointlessness of it all and the uncertainty of the future. Even mercenaries want to know occasionally where they are going and why. The air of confidence - even cocksureness - strikes you as soon as you walk across the tiny trestle bridge that connects Rwanda with Bukavu, the old Belgian settler city that nestles in the cool green hills along Lake Kivu in the eastern Congo. A Portuguese mercenary, dark, grinning, showing his ice teeth, is waiting. You want to see the commander? He slaps on his bush hat, the wide brims folded up in the dashing way of movie heroes...
White Troops, Buoyed by Escapade, Grow Testy From Uncertainty in Congo - The white mercenaries who rule this city in defiance of Congolese President Joseph D. Mobutu and his army are a group of confident and prideful men from many lands who are growing tired these days and testy with each other. Their confidence and pride comes from their extraordinary escapade of the last five weeks in which they have disrupted the eastern Congo and routed the Congolese army. Their fatigue and bickering comes from the pointlessness of it all and the uncertainty of the future. Even mercenaries want to know occasionally where they are going and why. The air of confidence - even cocksureness - strikes you as soon as you walk across the tiny trestle bridge that connects Rwanda with Bukavu, the old Belgian settler city that nestles in the cool green hills along Lake Kivu in the eastern Congo. A Portuguese mercenary, dark, grinning, showing his ice teeth, is waiting. You want to see the commander? He slaps on his bush hat, the wide brims folded up in the dashing way of movie heroes...
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