Word: mobutu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...SPARK THIS TIME WAS A NEW BANK NOTE THAT testified by its denomination alone to decades of misrule in Zaire: 5 million zaires, valued at a purported % $2. The bill was floated by the country's long-ruling and long-embattled dictator Mobutu Sese Seko -- and was promptly declared worthless by his rival in a power standoff, transitional Premier Etienne Tshisekedi. Most merchants refused to accept the disputed tender. When Zairian soldiers were paid with it, they went on an armed rampage, looting shops and the homes of several thousand Europeans who live in the former Belgian colony...
...refer to President Daniel arap Moi's mining interests as "That's mine! That's mine! And that's mine! . . ." Expatriate businessmen estimate that wealthy Nigerians have enough money in personal deposits abroad to pay off the country's entire foreign debt, more than $36 billion. Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko has a personal fortune that has been estimated from $4 billion to $6 billion, not far below the level of the country's external debt. He has isolated himself from his people -- and from gathering political unrest -- aboard a luxury yacht that cruises the Zaire River...
...Coretta Scott King and several black elected officials and labor leaders issued a statement calling for an end to the "violence and tyranny" inflicted by Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi's one-party government. Robinson has since repeated the criticism in appearances before U.S. congressional committees, adding Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and other African tyrants to the list...
...Nigeria, agreed to go all out to demand its turn in power and drew up a list of six candidates, all except Ghali from sub-Saharan nations. He was added almost by chance, to meet France's demand for a French-speaking candidate. In drawing up the list, President Mobutu of Zaire looked about the room, fixed his eye on Ghali and declared, "Vous!" China quickly pledged its support for an African, and France endorsed Ghali...
...latest unrest was prompted by Mobutu's ouster of his new Prime Minister, Etienne Tshisekedi, a leader of the opposition coalition, who had angered Mobutu by refusing to swear allegiance to him. Mobutu named a lesser opposition figure, Bernardin Mungul Diaka, as replacement. But Tshisekedi refused to step down. Instead, he rallied opposition support, and the standoff ! continued. What had started as a forced experiment in multiparty democracy had become a murderous farce, and it was far from over...