Arrows to Heaven

For the 106 European hostages still held by the Simbas in the Buta area north of Stanleyville, life had not been too bad. Although they had been bypassed by the mercenary-led columns that had cleared most of the rest of the northeast Congo, their captors had treated them well. The rebel commander ordered his Simbas not to molest them, and many of the Europeans still lived in their own houses. Some, after giving their word of honor that they would return to Buta, were permitted brief visits to government-held towns. The commander even allowed one Belgian nun to go on home leave--on condition that she bring him back a new uniform from Brussels.

Final Drive. But all the while, one chilling fact was predominant: the Simbas were keeping the whites as blood hostages against the inevitable mercenary march. "I don't want to make you martyrs," Rebel Chief Christophe Gben ye confided to them in April, "but if the Congolese army attacks Buta, I'm going to send you to heaven like arrows."

The Tshombe government did its best to keep them on earth. Messages were passed back and forth via hostages on leave from Buta. Belgian emissaries negotiated frantically with rebel leaders in the nearby Central African Republic. As the final drive got under way, Congolese B-26s papered the rebel area with leaflets offering the Simbas their lives if they would only lay down their arms "and surrender all hostages." In a final effort to save them, Mercenary

Commander Lieut. Colonel Mike Hoare ordered his twin commando columns to dash straight to Buta--in hopes of surprising the Simbas before they could act.

Fall of Buta. It was a tactic that had worked often in the past, but last week it failed. At Likati, a village 65 miles from Buta, Hoare's men ran into three Portuguese hostages--all impaled on spears. Nine other Europeans lay dead or dying along the road. When the columns rolled into Buta, the rebels had already fled and only eleven survivors were anywhere to be found. Two nights earlier, the Simbas had thrown 31 Belgian and Dutch priests to the crocodiles. Militarily, the operation was a success: Hoare lost only four men in wiping out the last large pocket of Simba territory. But in all, it had cost the lives of at least 52 hostages, and 42 others had vanished with the Simbas into the jungle. "I'm very, very sorry," said Premier Moise Tshombe, who was in the middle of a fund-raising tour of Europe, "but we did all we could."

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