The Jeunesse

At last the Congolese government seemed aware that it had a problem in Kwilu province. With Army Chief General Joseph Mobutu back on duty after a month-long vacation, 700 green-bereted Congolese commandos from Katanga debarked from planes in the Kwilu capital of Kikwit, began un loading guns and ammunition. The troops had their work cut out for them: a spreading, Communist-aided tribal revolt that has turned 6,000 sq. mi.

of Congolese territory into a guerrilla war zone.

Flying Arrows. Two government detachments were fighting for their lives.

One small unit, encircled in the village of Idiofa (see map) and reinforced by a platoon of commandos, had piled up 500 rebel dead, but was unable to break the siege. At Gungu, another government outfit mowed down 100 guerrillas who staged a suicide charge with bows and arrows, spears and pangas. But the troops were cut off when rebels dug trenches across the local airstrip. Hardly had the commandos ar rived at Kikwit when one of their top officers, Army Chief of Staff Lieut.

Colonel Eugene Abeya, was killed by a poison-arrow shot from ambush.

Before the insurrection flared six weeks ago, Kwilu was considered the Congo's "model province," one of the few regions with enough qualified men to run a provincial government. Today hundreds of its bridges are destroyed, at least 150 villages have been burned, and 120 local officials assassinated.

Virtually all of its 400 white mission aries have been evacuated, and the sprawling Unilever palm oil complex at Leverville -- Kwilu's biggest industry -- has been idled, putting 18,000 natives out of work.

Stepping up their attacks, the rebels last week burned the towns of Bulungu and Kikandji north of Kikwit. Other bands headed into neighboring Unite Kasaienne province, whose capital, Tshikapa, is one of the world's richest diamond-mining centers. The terrorists are mainly of the Bapende tribe, whose members are concentrated not only in Kwilu but also in Unite Kasaienne to the east, and in Kwango province to the west. The government's biggest immediate concern was that they might cut off the Kasai River, through which the Congo's copper from Katanga currently travels to the Atlantic port of Matadi.

Golden Book. Led by Peking-trained Pierre Mulele, 34, Education Minister under the late leftist Premier Patrice Lumumba, the rebels--who call themselves the Jeunesse (youth), though many are over 50--count only a few hundred hard-core Reds. But they have incited thousands of local tribesmen to rise against the "profiteers of independence," as Mulele has labeled Premier Cyrille Adoula's government. The terrorists operate along classic Mao Tse-tung guerrilla lines, spout an unmistakable doctrine. For example, their interpretation of the United States AID agency's clasped-hands symbol is that the U.S. is "pulling the Congolese into slavery." They also blend in their own brand of juju, showering dirt over themselves as protection against bullets, and maintaining that Mulele possesses a "Golden Book," handed down to him from Lumumba, that contains all the secrets of power.

Where to Watch? Given the Congo's endemic anarchy, the government can ill afford to spare many troops. Leopoldville, as usual, is seething with discontent. Last week 200 Leopoldville soldiers had to be jailed when they refused to go to Kwilu. Volatile Katanga, where the secessionist rebellion was crushed a year ago, still harbors roaming bands of ex-gendarmes.

So weak is the Congolese control of its borders that last week 3,000 spear-wielding Watutsi tribesmen exiled in the Congo's eastern reaches mounted an attack on their neighboring homeland, Rwanda, out of revenge for the recent genocidal slaughter there of thousands of Watutsi by the ruling Bahutu tribe. They were driven back by the Belgian-officered Rwanda army at a cost of 300 Watutsi dead.

One solution would be for the Congo's 5,000-man U.N. force to step into Kwilu, but Army Boss Mobutu is jealous of their presence, and Secretary-General U Thant wants to pull all U.N. troops out of the Congo by June 30 in any case.

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