Word: mobutuism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Mobutu Sese Seko is accustomed to using a strong arm. When the Zairean President flew to France two weeks ago from Switzerland, where he had been convalescing after cancer surgery since August, his arrival naturally attracted photographers eager to film the elusive leader as he entered his villa at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Minutes later, bodyguards surrounded the journalists, snatched their film and threatened to start breaking limbs...
...Mobutu remains the missing man in Zaire's latest crisis, out of sight and in questionable command of his nation. Even in the best of times, his absence would provoke perilous consequences for a country hovering on the threshold of economic collapse after 30 years of high-handed rule. But since September, when Zaire's eastern provinces fell under attack from local Tutsi rebels, Mobutu's uncertain condition--and continued hold on power--has been a matter of dire import. Three weeks ago, Le Monde reported that his prostate cancer had metastasized to his bones. But a guest whom Mobutu...
...Even if Mobutu lasts that long, the integrity of his nation, a colonial creation that lashes together some 200 tribes across a region the size of Western Europe, is already at risk. Only Mobutu's will and wizardry have held the place together for so long. His style of rule combines charisma with a flair for draconian repression. (As part of an "authenticity campaign" in the '70s to divest Zaire of its European taint, he outlawed bow ties, public kissing and Christmas.) But he also successfully marketed his country to the West as a bulwark against Soviet expansion in Africa...
...American executive recounts a trip to Zaire with Robertson some years ago that began in Paris, where the minister, his wife Adelia and an entourage of 15 boarded one of Mobutu's personal planes, a Boeing 707. On the visitors' arrival, Mobutu received them on the presidential yacht. There was a ride up the Congo to visit a presidential estate and, in an unusual gesture of official hospitality, Mrs. Mobutu actually prepared several of the dishes served to the guests. ``The atmosphere was very congenial,'' says the executive, long a supporter of Robertson's. ``Pat Robertson and Mobutu get along...
Robertson told TIME that his organizations ``do not engage in domestic politics with governments--whether it be Angola, South Africa or Zaire,'' and that they operate ``under strict ethical guidelines'' that meet ``all legal requirements imposed by governmental agencies.'' Consorting with a dictator like Mobutu, however, just might raise the eyebrows of a more supreme authority...