Michael,

I will have to go with Stan after writing 2 books on the Congo and talking with key leaders who served on the ground. The key difference between Congloese troops and Rwandan troops (meaning those in the RPA I knew) is a true sense of national identity. It simply does not exist in the Congo because the Congo remains a a region of tribal alliances and not a state. I have used military diaries from Europen advisors (military and mercenary) who say essentially the same thing.

I take your poiint on comparison of NATO units who can count on a salary and something to eat. Indeed it is a comparison I have used. The difference is the NATO unit would try to do something to fix the situation as an enity of the state. The Congolese have a well established tradition of fixing it through larceny, extortion, or mutiny.

I had this debate with my replacement in Zaire in 1994 into 1996. She continued to talk about the DSP as elite and by extension the contract portion of the DSP used to "secure" the camps in eastern Zaire. The DSP was well paid and certainly well fed by Zairian standards; the RPA brushed them aside on the march into Kinshasa.

The bottom line is that it is more about identity and purpose than it is about money.

Tom