Word: mobutu
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Come over here," ordered General Joseph Mobutu, President of the Congo. "Now turn around...
...governors of the nation's twelve provinces did as they were told. They had been summoned to Kinshasa (formerly Leopoldville) to receive the Order of the Leopard, an award Mobutu invented for "exceptional services" and had already passed out to his Cabinet. For last week's ceremony, the governors showed up in Kinshasa's Place Braconnier in a sartorial array of cutaway coats, tails, business suits and even one black corduroy jacket. When they were properly in line, Mobutu marched stiffly down the ranks, planting a medal on each chest and a noisy kiss on each neck...
There was a marvelous irony about the ceremony, for Mobutu had only recently stripped the governors of nearly all their administrative powers. They no longer control their provincial police; they can no longer even set foot outside their provinces without Mobutu's written permission. It was typical of the way the general has been running the Congo since he seized power eight months ago. But if his methods have been anything but democratic, he has at least taken charge of a land in which for five chaotic years no one was in charge...
Dawn Riser. With army backing, Mobutu has put a violent end to the political intrigues that confounded every Premier from Leftist Patrice Lumumba to Rightist Moise Tshombe. He organized a youth corps to report any political activity, and he hanged four politicians, including ex-Premier Evariste Kimba, whom he caught plotting against...
...days after their arrest, Kimba and the other three, their bodies badly bruised and their wrists painfully bound, were hauled before a military tribunal. As a noisy throng looked on, the tribunal gave each a brief hearing; each denied any intention of killing Mobutu and his colleagues. The court deliberated six minutes before finding them guilty and sentencing them to be hanged -36 hours later-in the public square. Appeals for clemency from the diplomatic corps were turned down...