Looking for Votes

The 35-member Organization of African Unity has never been very friendly to Congolese Premier Moise Tshombe. When his name is mentioned in O.A.U. meetings, it often brings delegates to their feet, shouting "Lackey," "Stooge" or "Neocolonialist." But last week, as the group's foreign ministers met in Nairobi to discuss the Congo question, Tshombe, to his surprise and gratification, found that he had more supporters than attackers.

An important question was whether Tshombe's bitter Congolese foes, the rebel forces of Christophe Gbenye, would be invited to present their case to the meeting. The Sudan, which has acted as a funnel for arms to the rebels, joined Egypt and Algeria in demanding that the rebels be heard. But when the vote was taken, the rebels were rejected, suggesting that a growing number of delegations felt that, whatever their personal antipathy to Tshombe, there was no alternative to supporting the legitimate Tshombe regime.

Moise himself showed up in Nairobi, flashing his quarter-moon smile as he stepped out of his Air Congo DC-6, and immediately went on the attack. He demanded that the O.A.U. censure Egypt, Algeria and the Sudan for supplying arms to the rebels, and the Brazzaville Congo for sending armed bands of invaders into the Congo to aid the rebel cause. Finally, he challenged the rebels themselves to lay down their arms and take their case to the people in the Congo's six-week election period that starts next week. "Let them contest the elections," said Tshombe. "They are free to do so."

Although Tshombe did not say so, his challenge could well be the rebels' only chance to be anything but jungle terrorists. In the northeastern Congo last week, Tshombe's troops were preparing to move. In Bunia, near the Uganda border, Major Mike Hoare had arrived with 300 fresh mercenaries from South Africa and Rhodesia. An additional 400 Belgian and French mercenaries were poised in the jungle towns to the west of the rebels' center, and Tshombe's own Congolese army was not far behind, presumably waiting only for the end of the O.A.U. conference to strike. Object of the new offensive: to cut off the rebels' only remaining road connections with the outside world, clear as much of the northeast portion of the Congo as possible before the elections end.

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