"riverman" wrote in message
...


Whew, today was just freaking scary at times, I tell you what! But at
least
the Congolese guard outside with the seriously mean-looking dog is well
fed.
I brought him a 3-course meal and told him (in French) "Thanks for being
here!"

--riverman



OK, here's the latest updates, and it had information that hasn't hit CNN
yet, as I have been talking to some high-ranking folks in MONUC and the
embassies.

Last night, the folks who had weathered the mobs at the UN compound got out
and came home for a change of clothes. They said this was definately a
semi-organized mob action, not a military one, as the vast majority of the
crowd was hopping off the train coming in from out of town, and only a few
were getting bussed in from Kin. More significant, though, was that the
mobbers were going home for lunch and dinner, leaving the compound pretty
well unmolested from dark until dawn. My friend left around 10pm last night,
and flew across town in his UN vehicle at about 140 kmh, and said the
streets were completely bare. Not one car, only a handful of pedestrians.
The military curfew apparently worked to stop the riots.

However, last night at 4AM, the South African embassy evacuated all their
nonessential personnel (84 women and children), but they are currently
stranded in Lumumbashi, as their flight does not have clearance to fly over
Zambia. Today, the UN is arranging evacuation for all their nonessential
personnel, and have already started moving families and personnel into the
center of town, into the Grand Hotel. (Those of you who have read "In The
Footsteps or Mr. Kurtz" will recognize that auspicious name.) Anyway, the
word in the UN is that there is the full expectation that, within the next
2-5 days, the Vice President who went to the east to see about the rebel's
occupation of Bukavu, and who remained there while the rest of the
government officials were evacuated back to Kinshasa, will declare the
eastern province a soverign state, enlist the aid of Rwanda, and there will
be a civil war! MONUC still does not have a mandate to do anything but
observe, so they expect some whiplash for not taking up arms against this
rebel VP, and are making arrangements for an evacuation of all non-military
personnel if it comes to a civil war. Just to be safe, I have cancelled my
trip to the interior for next week, and changed my flight to Brussels from
the 19th to the 13th. No one knows what a civil war will do to Kinshasa, but
to make matters worse, several of the major airlines (Air France, SNBA
(Sabena), South African Air) have cancelled flights in and out, so those of
us with tickets out next weekend are not certain to be able to get on a
flight. A lot will be resolved this week, and we'll have to see if the
eastern province secedes, if the airlines decide to fly, if we get
evacuated, or if nothing happens and it all returns to the local version of
'normal'.

I did some soul searching last night, and decided that there was really very
little here that I could not replace, so if we get quickly evacced, it will
unfortunately be goodbye to my fishing gear, as well as my stereo, golf
clubs, clothes, camping gear, etc. But the good news is: it will be summer
vacation! :-)

Anyway, time to redo my 'go bag' for a longer-term evac, inventory my house,
and finish doing grades. Thanks for letting me air out the process of the
last 24 hours; it helped. Hope you all enjoyed the ride. :-)

--riverman