Word: mobutu
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Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko seldom misses Sunday Mass. It is a ritual he has faithfully observed during his nearly 30 years of absolute power, a tenure marked by the torture and killing of his opponents and corruption that has funneled much of his nation's wealth into his private pocket. Now 62 and in robust health, Mobutu governs from his native fiefdom of Gbadolite, a jungle village close to the equator. Surrounded at all times by heavily armed troops, he remains impervious to the growing clamor among 35 million Zairians for an end to his disastrously autocratic rule...
...people need me," Mobutu says with a smile, "I can certainly remain in power for another five, 10 or even 20 years." Any hope that he will peacefully step aside is belied by the name he took for himself several years after he seized power in the 1960s: Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga (the all powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, shall go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake...
After church, Mobutu joins guests for a flute of his favorite pink Laurent Perrier champagne at the nearby presidential palace. Like an amiable monarch amid courtiers, he bows gracefully to kiss a woman's hand and banters politely with a local Jesuit priest before herding everyone across an immense terrace toward a buffet laden with lobster and thick steaks. In the 100 degrees heat, a wave of satisfaction seems to envelop the presidential party, a sense that all is still well in this remote hinterland far from the chaos afflicting the rest of the country...
...Mobutu's personal fortune, built on a network of private businesses, the pilfering of public resources and skimming the foreign aid that has flowed into his country, has been estimated at $5 billion. He has bank accounts in Switzerland and other countries, an apartment on Avenue Foch in Paris, a palatial villa at Cap-Martin on the French Riviera and other residences in Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Senegal. When pressed, he swears on his "honor as a Christian and a chief" that his available funds amount to "no more than $10 million." He does concede, however, that this absurdly...
WESTERN POWERS ARE MOUNTING A NEW CAMPAIGN to unseat Mobutu Sese Seko, Zaire's mercurial dictator for 27 years. In the wake of bloody unrest that killed at least 1,000 people, the U.S., Belgium and France presented a demarche in Kinshasa, demanding that the President abide by an earlier commitment to transfer power to a transitional government headed by Etienne Tshisekedi. But Mobutu rejected the ultimatum, and its authors evidently plan to back it up through new economic pressure rather than by force. Despite an open plea by Tshisekedi for military intervention, about 700 French and Belgian troops sent...