Word: mobutu
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SICK MAN OF THE YEAR (AFRICA): Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire...
ROQUEBRUNE-CAP-MARTIN, France: President Mobutu Sese Seko made his long-anticipated return to Zaire Tuesday. But after four months abroad, no one seems to know what awaits the ailing President. A heavily armed convoy escorted Mobutu to one of his residences at Camp Tashatshi military base."This is certainly a significant event, but signifying what, no one is really sure," says TIME's Peter Graff. Sources say that Mobutu has weeks, possibly months, to live, but if he has an agenda for his last days other than trying to fight off prostate cancer, he isn't saying. Government officials...
...Even if Mobutu lasts that long, the integrity of his nation, a colonial creation that lashes together some 200 tribes across a region the size of Western Europe, is already at risk. Only Mobutu's will and wizardry have held the place together for so long. His style of rule combines charisma with a flair for draconian repression. (As part of an "authenticity campaign" in the '70s to divest Zaire of its European taint, he outlawed bow ties, public kissing and Christmas.) But he also successfully marketed his country to the West as a bulwark against Soviet expansion in Africa...
...tyrant has stockpiled much of the country's wealth for himself: his fortune is estimated at several hundred million dollars. "The Guide," as he has dubbed himself, lavished much of that money on empty show. When rebel looters in Goma recently entered the President's local villa--a mansion Mobutu visited just once, but kept ready for his imminent return--they found a house full of plastic "marble" and fake antiques. Other expressions of his grandeur are not so hollow: he owns chateaus in Spain and Belgium, a town house in Paris and a horse ranch in Portugal. Such abuse...
...Mobutu's corrupt and incompetent army put up little resistance when the Tutsi rebels seized eastern portions of the nation. But when they began forcing the 1.2 million Hutu refugees from camps inside Zaire, Mobutu was handed a crisis tailor-made to his needs. An international humanitarian effort could enhance his global stature and buy him some time, assuming his health remains stable. But it would not address the pent-up flood of problems that are overwhelming his vainglorious leadership...