Word: mobutu
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...many of the eleven years that Mobutu Sese Seko, 46, has ruled Zaïre, that huge central African country (once known as the Belgian Congo) has dined out on its promise of wealth. The country's enormous, and still largely unexploited, deposits of copper served as a kind of collateral on which Zaïre managed to borrow extensively abroad. It now owes $2.9 billion, $800 million of which is due private lenders in the U.S., Europe and Japan. But instead of achieving steady growth, Zaïre became a textbook example of how a Third World nation...
...troubles began five years ago when Mobutu, an autocrat who always carries a traditional tribal chieftain's stick decorated with carved figures of birds and snakes, decreed an ambitious industrialization program. Instead of investing in agriculture-which would have increased food supplies and given many more Zaïrians jobs-Mobutu put $1 billion, much of it borrowed, into projects aimed at a vast expansion of copper exports. He gambled that increasing demand would keep copper prices rising-and he lost. During the world recession, copper prices plunged by 62%, and Zaïre's copper revenues shrank...
Other states that depend on trade with the white regimes have adopted contrasting political postures. In Zaire (pop. 25,600,000), which has been receiving U.S. military and economic aid to counter Soviet influence in neighboring Angola, strongman President Mobutu Sese Seko takes a firm stand against Rhodesia and South Africa in public while carrying on a brisk covert trade (perhaps as much as $100 million a year) with the white regimes. Malawi (pop. 5,100,000) practically flaunts its desire for cordial relations with the white governments. Says the country's U.S.-educated President, Hastings Kamuzu Banda...
...Kissinger mission, at least in public. This time Nyerere was in a buoyant mood, speaking with far greater candor about the substance of the proposals put to Smith than anyone else had done all week. Next, Kissinger flew to Kinshasa to brief Zaïre's flamboyant President Mobutu Sese Seko, then on to Nairobi to see Kenya's venerable President Jomo Kenyatta. Led into the midst of 300 tribal dancers by his host, Kissinger attempted a few fumbling steps of his own before begging off with a quip: "Those who have seen me dance will know that...
...ground action against local separatists of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (F.L.E.C.) and diehard remnants of the defeated National Front for the Liberation of Angola (F.N.L.A.). They have apparently been successful in quieting the area-especially since Zaïre President Mobutu Sese Seko closed his border with Cabinda after Luanda protested that supplies were being funneled to the rebels. The rebel problem is more persistent in the south, where Cubans are also guarding the Benguela railway. Running clear across central Angola, the railway is difficult to defend against sabotage. The line has been blown...