Quote Originally Posted by Norfolk View Post
Thanks Stan, I got it. At this rate, I'm going to have a "Thomas P. Odom" shelf for books and articles.

Is it physically impossible for the DRC (not to mention some others in the region) to raise fighting forces that actually can and will fight (and win) aginst competent/semi-competent opponents, or is this pretty much a Tutsi monopoly in those parts?
I would have to say it is "culturally impossible" in the Congo--or so that has proven to be the case in the past 50 years. I say that because as soon as anyone emerges in the Congolese culture as a potential leader the forces of corruption set in; the closest thing to an exception to this rule were two officers in the FAZ. One was Leonard Mulembe and he was an excellent LTC in the 1960s Simba troubles, a fact reported on by DV Rattan and Mike Hoyt. The other Major and later GEN Mahale whose unit jumped at Kolwezi at Mobutu's orders; Mahele did not jump but did link up with the survivors of the abortive airborne op. Mahele later became FAZ Cheif of Staff only to be cashiered after the 1991 pillage when he went out on the street and started shooting FAZ soldiers. He was out of favor when I was there; i used to feed his aide de camp every Saturady morning. Mahele was not perfect; Stan can fill in more about him. But Mahele was shot out of hand in 1997 when he told Nzimbi and the other surviving favorites of Mobutu that they should surrender rather than risk slaughter in defending Kinshasa. Of course, they did NOT defend Kinshasa.

On the Tutsi angle, it really depends on which area or country you are talking. The Tutsi Burundian Army was/is as corrupt and cruel as was the Ex-FAR when it controlled Rwanda. My Rwandan contacts in the RPA were all Ugandan-raised English speaking Tutsi with a Hutu. To a man they did not trust the Burundian military and they did not like the Rwandan Tutsi who had been in Burundi in the RPA. They considered them corrupt and unreliable. They had greater problems with them retaliating against the Hutu Rwandans. Sharyar Khan as SRSG of UNAMIR 2 wrote a great book on his experiences and he comments on this as well.

As for the "Ugandan" Rwandan Tutsis who made up the core of the RPA, remember some of them had marched from Tanzania to help overthrow Amin. Then they had joined Museveni in the bush to defeat Obote. I have not been around the RPA in 11 years now but 10 years ago I would have put an RPA brigade against any other similar unit on the continent and many others elsewhere. The trick was in their leadership and discipline.

Best

Tom