Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.91.950516202510.23952A-100000@ucs.orst.edu> Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 23:24:09 -0700 From: Nicholas Hobgood <mailto:hobgoodn@UCS.ORST.EDU> Subject: Re: Ebola and the U.S. To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L
Agreed, that in theory, the Zairian population should take matters into their own hands and do something about Mobutu. In practice --- While working in Goma, Zaire from 8/94-12/94, and seeing the country's continuing deterioration first hand, I asked my Zairian coworkers how much more of this oppression could they take. They replied with the hopes that the US would put pressure on Mobutu to step down. How do you reconcile the voices of the Zairian population, asking the US government to intervene with the concept that a population, when stepped on enough, should stand up for their due rights ?Similarly, a group of Haitian Agricultural Extension Agents came to visit in July of 1994, right before we cut off all commercial flights to Haiti. We were still debating military intervention in Haiti and when asked whether the US should invade or not, the extension agents response was a unanimous "yes".
Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting US military intervention in Zaire but I am opposed to the "let's sit back and see what happens" scenario. Our long history of support for Mobutu is inextricably linked to the population's belief that the US is behind him in some way. Folks in the most remote villages of Zaire know that Mobutu's strength came predominantly from the US. There are other ways in which the US, France and Belgium can collaborate to pressure Mobutu into stepping down to a transition government. If the Zairian people's hope for a better life lies in the US, shouldn't we at least give it a try?
Nick Hobgood