Word: mobutu
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Problem of Arithmetic. With this news, the politicians in Leopoldville abruptly lost interest in the democratic processes they had so fervently advocated. Army Commander General Joseph Mobutu openly opposed Parliament's return. So did Foreign Minister Justin Bomboko. Kasavubu himself stalled off the U.N. officials who urged him to go ahead and formally declare the opening of Parliament, with or without the delegates. His reason: without Katanga's votes, control of the legislature just might swing to the Communist-backed regime of that other prominent Congolese secessionist, Stanleyville's Antoine Gizenga, who runs Eastern province...
Huddling grimly with his close aides, General Mobutu seemed determined to prevent Gizenga's return to national influence at any cost, and suspicion rose that the 30-year-old army chief might try to grab control of the central government with a military coup d'etat to make sure his views prevailed...
Major General Joseph Mobutu, the Congolese army commander who had kept him under lock and key, was now Tshombe's pal. Turning to Mobutu, Tshombe declared: "Because of men like him, the Congo crisis can now be ended. He is above them all, all, all, all." Then, of all things, Tshombe embraced Congolese Foreign Minister Justin Bomboko, who a few weeks ago accused him of high treason. "He was my worst enemy," grinned Moise. "Now he is my best friend." Back home in Katanga, Tshombe's aides glumly prepared to hand over their army to central Congolese government...
...settled into his glass-walled office in Léopoldville, chaos broke around his head. Erratic Patrice Lumumba wanted protection in his refuge in the Premier's residence. From his own villa near by, President Joseph Kasavubu sulked and hurled insults at the U.N. One afternoon Colonel Joseph Mobutu strode into Dayal's office, asked for a slug of Scotch, and announced that a coup d'état would take place within ten minutes...
...untrained politicians clearly got on his delicate nerves. The Congolese army, he declared publicly, was "rabble," and the local press angrily quoted him as calling Army Boss Mobutu a "bandit." In time, Dayal lost personal contact with all Congolese leaders, eventually withdrew to haughty isolation in his own elegant residence. When, after Lumumba's death, he seemed to lean over backward to favor Antoine Gizenga's Red-leaning Stanleyville regime, Dayal also lost the trust of the big Western nations...