Chris McGreal in Kigali
THE Zairean government this week finally ordered its much-threatened counter- offensive against Rwandan-backed rebels who have seized swathes of territory in the east.
But despite claiming it has Libyan support, there is little evidence that Zaire’s battered and ill-disciplined army is any more able to carry out the directive from the Prime Minister, Kengo wa Dondo, than it was to resist the original rebel onslaught.
“I have ordered our armed forces to conduct the war and recover regions currently under occupation and restore the authority of the state,” Kengo said on state television.
The prime minister called on the Zairean people to be “in communion” with the army they so often fear.
The government has been threatening a counter-offensive for weeks. It is expected to come from Kisangani, the northern city under threat from the rebels. The army claims to have already launched small-scale raids, although the military has not claimed any success.
Three Soviet-built helicopter gunships, manned by white men, have arrived in Kisangani. Radio Zaire early this week claimed Tripoli has offered assistance for the offensive, without saying what kind, during a visit by the Libyan foreign minister. Foreign mercenaries are reported to be gathering in the city.
The army chief of staff, General Mahele Leiko Bokungo, appointed last month with draconian powers, is in Kisangani to oversee the counter-offensive. The regional Governor, Lombeya Bosongo, told Reuters he expected it to be a swift campaign. “It won’t be long before this adventure is over,” he said.
But there are few signs that the army is better able or more willing to fight than when government forces fled in terror – stopping only to loot and rape – in the face of the rebel offensive launched last October.
Discipline remains a serious problem which has undermined public support for the army. Earlier this month the government declared parts of the country a disaster area, not because of the rebel attacks but because its own military was responsible for widespread destruction and attacks on civilians. Military tribunals have begun to try offenders, including six senior officers, for desertion, rape, looting and selling weapons.
The rebel Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire has been recruiting heavily in expectation of the counter-offensive. It can also count on the continued support of the Rwandan army which invaded eastern Zaire in October to rout Hutu extremists and send home hundreds of thousands of refugees camped on its borders.
Rwanda is unlikely to want to see the buffer zone it has carved out reoccupied by a hostile Zairean army. While a well- organised counter-offensive may block further advances by the rebels, or push them back, it will be another matter for government forces to retake all the lost territory.
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