Word: mobutu
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President Mobutu Sese Seko's country estate, a marble-studded palace set amid flowers and fountains in northern Zaire, is sometimes called "Versailles-in- the-Jungle." The nickname, a reminder of the treaty that ended World War I, seemed especially apt last week as Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, the main antagonists in a 14-year-old civil war, met there for a handshake that might lead to a formal peace agreement...
While few details were known about last week's discussions, the two sides agreed to the establishment of a mediation commission under Mobutu's chairmanship to deal with "technical" issues and to meet again in Zimbabwe in August. Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, who sat in on the talks, said afterward that Savimbi would leave Angola for voluntary exile. Other participants doubted that, however, assuming that Savimbi would want to stay on the scene to keep UNITA alive as a political movement. The biggest obstacle to a final agreement may arise if Dos Santos remains determined to preserve Angola's Marxist...
...newly independent nations of Africa. The Gold Coast dubbed itself Ghana, in honor of an ancient African empire that was located hundreds of miles from the modern nation. When the Belgian Congo became independent in 1960, it renamed itself the Republic of the Congo. Eleven years later, President Joseph Mobutu rechristened it the Republic of Zaire. A year later, he took his policy of "authenticity" personally, renaming himself Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Nbgendu Wa Za Banga, which means, more or less, "the all-powerful warrior who will go from conquest to conquest trailing fire in his wake...
...launch the regional heads-of-government conference that Botha wants so much to attend. A senior British diplomat observes that the front line is holding firm now, "but it is beginning to wobble." In the meantime, Botha can count on two more summits in coming months when Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and Mozambique's Joaquim Chissano pay the return visits they have promised. Yet the real payoff in authentic black-white harmony for the continent will require a more sustained journey than the fleeting visits Botha has made...
That is a reputation that has plagued Switzerland for years. Argentina's Juan Perón, the Shah of Iran and Nicaragua's Anastasio Somoza had large Swiss accounts in the past. Among current world leaders, Zaïre's Mobutu Sese Seko is believed to have substantial holdings on deposit. Swiss banks have been a haven for foreign capital since the French Revolution. The current rules on confidentiality were set up in 1934 to protect Jews fleeing Nazi Germany...