Word: mobutu
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Zairean dissatisfaction with Mobutu has deep roots, going back to the early '60s, when Zaire--then the Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa)--won independence from the Belgians under the leadership of Patrice Lumumba. The Belgian record in Africa was particularly cruel, with a long history of massacres and torture in the Congo. By international agreement, the Congo was the personal fiefdom of Belgium's King Leopold, who grew notorious for the repression and exploitation he encouraged in the area...
...Kolwezi two weeks ago are the remnants and descendants of the losing side in the civil war that followed secession.) United Nations "peacekeeping" forces, with U.S. support, also played a key role in the success of the coup against the Lumumba government, holding government forces in check while allowing Mobutu, then head of the army and considered "safe" by the Belgians, free rein to take over. There is evidence, revealed by former CIA officer John Stockwell, that the CIA had a hand in Lumumba's eventual kidnapping and murder at Lubumbashi. His body has never been found...
VISITING LUBUMBASHI now, one can still see the scars of the civil war, although Mobutu has nominally established independence for a united Zaire. Houses still lie in ruins and roads are a shambles; at the university, the frame of a three-story building, originally meant to be a library, stands unfinished and rusting. All the university students were drafted and placed under military discipline when they protested Mobutu's policies. Most of the rest of the city consists of mud huts, where the people eke out a living on the edge of starvation. And corruption is a way of life...
Outside the mines the Shaba economy is stagnant. The only development in the area is the investment by OTRAG, a huge West German company, in a rocket-testing site near Lubumbashi. Mobutu gave the site, covering hundreds of kilometers, to OTRAG in much the same way colonies were assigned to European monopolies in the 19th century. OTRAG may remove the inhabitants and establish its own laws; its personnel are not subject to Zaire laws. The site borders on Zambia and Tanzania, and is only a few hundred kilometers from Angola--a fact that has made these independent countries understandably nervous...
...Mobutu's relations with his neighbors are strained, to say the least. Angola in particular has had problems with his erratic and belligerent style. Mobutu's designs on Angola have never been secret: he wanted to acquire the oil-rich enclave of Cabinda--which is separated from Angola by the Congo River--along with whatever else he could grab. When the Portuguese agreed to leave Angola, Zairean and South African troops joined local groups to fight the Movimento Popular de Liberacion d'Angola (MPLA), which had established itself as the best-organized and most popular nationalist movement. In this "Second...