Ouster & Death

No doubt about it, Congolese Rebel Leader Christophe Gbenye is steadily gaining friends in the rest of Africa. While his henchmen huddled in Cairo with Algerian and Egyptian officials discussing more aid for the rebellion, Gbenye himself turned up in Uganda with the rulers of three East African republics in tow. Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta, Uganda's Apollo Milton Obote and Tanzania's Julius Nyerere seemed genuinely thrilled to help the Congolese "hero," and Western diplomats sensed a rising tide of anti-Americanism growing from the meeting.

On the Steps. No sooner had Nyerere returned to his capital of Dar es Salaam than he called in U.S. Ambassador William Leonhart and informed him that two American officials were "engaged in subversive activities" and would have to leave the country in 24 hours. One was Embassy Counselor Robert Gordon. The other was U.S. Consul in Zanzibar Frank Carlucci, a hustling, Swahili-speaking troubleshooter who had seemed to be getting on well with Nyerere (TIME, Jan. 1).*

Washington strenuously denied the subversion charges, and Nyerere refused to show Leonhart the "evidence" on which the expulsion was based. Some observers believed that the action may have been linked to the crudely forged "documents" turned up last November by Tanzania Foreign Minister Oscar Kambona, which purported to show the U.S. as leagued with Portugal in a plot to overthrow Nyerere's government. A second theory was that Nyerere believed Carlucci and Gordon were behind the abortive Arab-backed coup that failed in Zanzibar last month.

Even more mysterious was the assassination of Burundi's Premier Pierre Ngendandumwe, who was gunned down on the steps of a hospital in Bujumbura after a visit to his wife, who had just given birth to a baby. A moderate, Ngendandumwe had been in office only eight days, having replaced a pro-Peking regime headed by Albin Nyamoya. Burundi has been Red China's major East African base for subversion directed against the Congo, but with the assassin still at large, there was no way of knowing who had put him up to the deed.

Odd Talk. Meanwhile, up from obscurity popped former Congolese Premier Cyrille Adoula, who was replaced last July by Moise Tshombe. Writing in the left-wing Tunisian weekly Jeune Afrique, Adoula proposed that the Congo embrace the Gbenye regime and forgive the rebels their savagery. "Any solution that excludes the rebels," wrote Adoula, "would be illusory." This was odd talk from a man who had refused even to negotiate grievances with the rebels while he was in power. Now Adoula proposed including them in a reconciliation government while at the same time kicking out the white mercenaries who had provided much-needed leadership for the Congo's ragtag army. Most important, Adoula argued, Moise Tshombe must be "excluded" from any future attempt to reconcile the Congo's fierce factions, since he "carried the responsibility for the present situation."

Adoula's argument was music to the ears of those African leaders who view Tshombe as a Belgian puppet and would like nothing better than to see him ousted from power. When and if that happens, Cyrille Adoula clearly would like to pick up the pieces where he left them six months ago.

* In neighboring Kenya, the government angrily expelled TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief Peter Forbath, who only the week before had been scouting Congolese rebel supply lines in Uganda.

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