Word: mobutu
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When President Joseph Mobutu showed up in Leopoldville's King Baudouin Stadium for his first major public appearance last week, the 30,000 people on hand thought it odd that he was in informal khakis instead of his bemedaled full-dress general's uniform. There was a reason. Mobutu was there to urge his nation to get down to work. For five years, he claimed, politicians had "sacrificed the country for their own interests" and had brought it "hatred, quarrels and corruption." "The Congo no longer produces," he said, "the people no longer work...
...that is going to change, said Mobutu, and it suddenly became clear why he wore no tunic. Pop went the button on one shirt cuff as he told the Congolese to "roll up your sleeves, strip off your ties and get to work." Pop went the button on his other cuff as his bug-eyed audience began to realize that he meant them to follow suit. "Roll 'em up," Mobutu called to the uproarious crowd. "You too!" he shouted to his assembled Cabinet ministers, who sheepishly followed orders...
Forest of Banners. What bothered Mobutu was the dangerous direction in which the struggle had been leading the nation. Police Boss Victor Nendaka had begun banning anti-Kasavubu newspapers and mounting a hate-campaign that seemed to aim toward Tshombe's arrest. Worse, to gain leftist support, Kasavubu had restored relations with the Peking-oriented Brazzaville Congo across the river, was cozying up to Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, and had promised to kick out the white mercenary troops that were the muscle of Mobutu's Congolese army...
...poldville's broad Boulevard du 30 Juin under a forest of banners ("Long Live Nkrumah and Kasavubu," "Down with the Yankees," "Tshombe to the Firing Squad"), and tried to break into Parliament. The army arrested the ringleaders, but when Nendaka's police promptly set them free, Mobutu decided that it was time to step in. He summoned his 14 regional commanders to Leopoldville, where in a conference that lasted until 1:30 a.m., they decided that Kasavubu had to go. "This is not a military coup," claimed Mobutu. "The army is merely fulfilling its responsibilities to the nation...
Military Hero. Coup or not, it was the second time that "Jumping Joe" Mobutu, a sometime paratrooper and former sergeant in the Belgian army, had tried it. Five years ago, in the midst of a racking feud between Kasavubu and leftist Premier Patrice Lumumba, he had "neutralized" them both by seizing power on behalf of a "college of commissioners." But his army withdrew its full support, and Mobutu, then only 30 years old, was forced to retire after four hectic months...