Workers League - Behind the US invasion of Somalia - Mehring Books

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placed under foreign military rule."
This analysis is being vindicated not only by the evolution of the
US occupation in Somalia, but by tumultuous events shaking the
entire African continent.
In Zaire, the regime of President Mobutu Sese Seko faces its
greatest crisis in its 27-year rule. Following clashes between rival
army factions in the capital of Kinshasa, Mobutu announced the
dismissal ofhis main political rival, Prime Minister Etienne Tshisekedi,
who in turn has appealed for intervention by foreign troops to
"restore order."
In Brussels, diplomats representing what are known as Zaire's
"creditor nations" held emergency meetings and issued an ultimatum
demanding that Mobutu "transfer authority to the transitional government."
Reviewing the recent events in Zaire, the diplomatic note
signed by the United States, France and Belgium declared, "These
developments have brought Zaire to the brink of political and
economic collapse, and are subjecting Zairians to unbearable hardships."
These nations now posing as the champions of democracy and the
guardians of the Zairian people are fully responsible for the crisis
wracking the African nation. France and Belgium were the original
colonial conquerors of the Congo, out of which Zaire was formed.
Between them, they were responsible for the murder and enslavement
of millions of Africans, while they plundered the land for its rich
mineral wealth. For its part, Washington served as the principal
backer of Mobutu for the last quarter century, valuing him as the
CIA's chief asset on the African continent and using Zaire as a base
for counterrevolutionary operations and proxy wars throughout
southern Africa.
French and Belgian troops are already deployed in Kinshasa for
the ostensible purpose of evacuating foreigners. While diplomats
refused to comment on the meeting in Brussels, it is clear that military
intervention to assert direct imperialist control over Zaire and its vast
deposits of diamonds, copper, cobalt and other minerals is being
prepared.
In Angola, the government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos
charged this week that South Africa, Zaire and other foreign elements
are intervening in support of the rebel UNITA forces led by Jonas
Savimbi, who resumed a 16-year civil war after his defeat in last
September's UN-sponsored elections.
While the South African apartheid regime and the Mobutu regime