"Recoil" - читать интересную книгу автора (McNab Andy)

2

We'd been in Zaire a month, training Mobutu's military to fire their weapons and use explosives without killing themselves – or us. We'd put all that on hold for a day or two when trouble brewed in the capital. Our students were needed to quell opposition on the streets.

Mobutu had been calling the shots, controlling a country the size of Western Europe for nearly two decades now. He was supported by the West, who saw him as a counterbalance to Soviet influence in the region, but that still didn't make him the sort of guy you'd want marrying your sister.

He had consolidated his position in the early days by publicly executing anyone who even looked like they might become a political rival. Pierre Mulele, a rebel leader, was lured back on the promise of amnesty, but was tortured and killed by Mobutu's boys. While he was still alive his eyes were gouged out, his bollocks were ripped off, and his limbs were amputated one by one. You could see where our machete-wielding mates got their ideas from.

Mobutu had nationalized foreign-owned firms and forced European investors out of the country. His favourite trick was to hand the management over to relatives and close associates; theirs was to plunder the companies' assets until the pips squeaked. It caused such a slump that Mobutu was forced to try to reverse the process. He'd needed Belgian aid to help repulse an attack by rebels based in Angola, and he needed us to help him out now.

Despite everything, he'd been re-elected – but that's not so difficult if all the other potential candidates are just too scared to stand.

His minister of information did the rest. The evening news was trailed by an image of the Father of the Nation descending through clouds from the heavens. It was our favourite moment of the day. There were more portraits of the Saviour of the People than you could shake a machete at – every public building had a dozen of them, and government officials even wore them in their lapels.

It wasn't altogether surprising that the natives were getting a bit restless. Most were living in mud huts and dying of starvation, while our new best mate Mobutu had tucked away nearly five billion US in numbered Swiss bank accounts. This was almost equivalent to the country's total foreign debt, but we, the US and even the IMF were still giving him loans.

He was pro-Western, anti-Communist, and since chaos seemed to be the only alternative, he was worth a bung or two. Without Mobutu, Zaire would disintegrate into ethnic violence and civil war – and so would the export of its vast mineral wealth to the West. So there we were, getting burned to a crisp, maintaining what our government liked to call 'the UK's interests overseas'.

My only concern was making sure my gun was free of grit. Because as soon as Davy reported back, we were going to have to drive down into the valley and make like the Seventh Cavalry.