10 April 1997 Edition
Taking power from a thief
By Dara MacNeil
Barring a miracle or some other form of celestial intervention, it appears the end has finally arrived for the West's favourite African dictator: Mobutu Sese Seko.
Having come to power in Zaire on the back of a military coup in 1965, Mobutu was quick to declare his allegiance to the West. The newly-installed dictator quickly opened his country up to western capital, a fact readily appreciated by the many western corporations that descended on Zaire: the country is enormously rich in natural resources, particularly precious stones and copper.
In later years Zaire also became a crucial staging post for the Western-financed and largely South African-run dirty war against the newly-emergent states of Angola and Mozambique.
However, while the world's mining conglomerates extracted wealth from the country at an alarming rate, few, if any, could compare with the personal avarice of Mobutu Sese Soku and his thieving cronies.
Such was the unabashed plundering that a new term was coined to describe Mobutu's regime: a kleptocracy.
`Development' money and overseas aid also routinely found its way into Mobutu's pocket.. And given Mobutu's longstanding reputation for pilfering the national coffers it would appear the West turned a blind eye to his kleptomaniacal practises, as their way of rewarding his fidelity.
Today, Mobutu is said to enjoy a personal fortune that runs into billions. Of late, his chief residence has been a pink and white marble chateau on the exclusive French Riviera. In Zaire, he owned eleven private palaces, and huge swathes of property from Cape Town to Paris.
But whatever about his personal fortune, Mobutu no longer has an exclusive hold on the reins of power. Indeed, it seems only a matter of time before he will be forced to relinquish them altogether.
Six months ago, the hitherto unheard of Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire emerged to challenge the Mobutu regime. Few credited the ADFL with any chance of success. Today it controls between a quarter and a fifth of the sprawling expanse that is Zaire (over thirty times the size of Ireland). The ADFL is headed by Laurence Kabila, a 58-year old veteran of the 1964 ``Simba'' (lion) rebellion. The ultimately unsuccessful Simba insurgency was supported at the time by Cuba. Indeed, the Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara even led a troop of Cubans to the region, in support of the rebels.
On this occasion, Kabila's ADFL have had to engage in very little actual combat. Town after town has fallen to the advancing rebels without a fight, as Mobutu's troops have either fled in advance or simply surrendered. Last week, as ADFL forces closed in on Zaire's second-largest city of Lubumbashi, government troops in the town prepared for the rebels' arrival by donning white headbands and announced their intention to join the insurgents' ranks. Crucially for Mobutu, among their number were members of his elite presidential guard, who had been especially dispatched to defend the city.
In a desperate attempt to shore up his crumbling regime President Mobutu recently appointed a new prime minister, Etienne Tshisekedi, whose first move was an attempt to assimilate the rebels into the regime by offering them six government ministries. In other words, an offer to share in the spoils of corruption. The offer was rejected. Currently, the parties are in peace negotiations, in South Africa.
Interestingly, France - with the backing of the European Union - made a serious attempt to prevent these negotiations taking place at all, by insisting - quite remarkably - that neither the rebel chief Laurence Kabila, nor a rebel representative should be allowed to attend the South African talks. As to whom the Zairian regime was supposed to negotiate with, that remains a mystery to this day. Having failed in this, France began claiming that rebels were waging a campaign of genocide against exiled Rwandan Hutus, resident in areas under rebel control. However, in March, a Dutch government official who visited the area said he could find no evidence to support the claims.
Evidently, the French hoped that such tales might provide them with the pretext for an invasion of Zaire, thereby propping up one of their last remaining friends in the region. France has still not recovered from the shock of losing control of neighbouring Rwanda.
Barring a miracle or some other form of celestial intervention, it appears the end has finally arrived for the West's favourite African dictator: Mobutu Sese Seko.
Having come to power in Zaire on the back of a military coup in 1965, Mobutu was quick to declare his allegiance to the West. The newly-installed dictator quickly opened his country up to western capital, a fact readily appreciated by the many western corporations that descended on Zaire: the country is enormously rich in natural resources, particularly precious stones and copper.
In later years Zaire also became a crucial staging post for the Western-financed and largely South African-run dirty war against the newly-emergent states of Angola and Mozambique.
However, while the world's mining conglomerates extracted wealth from the country at an alarming rate, few, if any, could compare with the personal avarice of Mobutu Sese Soku and his thieving cronies.
Such was the unabashed plundering that a new term was coined to describe Mobutu's regime: a kleptocracy.
`Development' money and overseas aid also routinely found its way into Mobutu's pocket.. And given Mobutu's longstanding reputation for pilfering the national coffers it would appear the West turned a blind eye to his kleptomaniacal practises, as their way of rewarding his fidelity.
Today, Mobutu is said to enjoy a personal fortune that runs into billions. Of late, his chief residence has been a pink and white marble chateau on the exclusive French Riviera. In Zaire, he owned eleven private palaces, and huge swathes of property from Cape Town to Paris.
But whatever about his personal fortune, Mobutu no longer has an exclusive hold on the reins of power. Indeed, it seems only a matter of time before he will be forced to relinquish them altogether.
Six months ago, the hitherto unheard of Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire emerged to challenge the Mobutu regime. Few credited the ADFL with any chance of success. Today it controls between a quarter and a fifth of the sprawling expanse that is Zaire (over thirty times the size of Ireland). The ADFL is headed by Laurence Kabila, a 58-year old veteran of the 1964 ``Simba'' (lion) rebellion. The ultimately unsuccessful Simba insurgency was supported at the time by Cuba. Indeed, the Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara even led a troop of Cubans to the region, in support of the rebels.
On this occasion, Kabila's ADFL have had to engage in very little actual combat. Town after town has fallen to the advancing rebels without a fight, as Mobutu's troops have either fled in advance or simply surrendered. Last week, as ADFL forces closed in on Zaire's second-largest city of Lubumbashi, government troops in the town prepared for the rebels' arrival by donning white headbands and announced their intention to join the insurgents' ranks. Crucially for Mobutu, among their number were members of his elite presidential guard, who had been especially dispatched to defend the city.
In a desperate attempt to shore up his crumbling regime President Mobutu recently appointed a new prime minister, Etienne Tshisekedi, whose first move was an attempt to assimilate the rebels into the regime by offering them six government ministries. In other words, an offer to share in the spoils of corruption. The offer was rejected. Currently, the parties are in peace negotiations, in South Africa.
Interestingly, France - with the backing of the European Union - made a serious attempt to prevent these negotiations taking place at all, by insisting - quite remarkably - that neither the rebel chief Laurence Kabila, nor a rebel representative should be allowed to attend the South African talks. As to whom the Zairian regime was supposed to negotiate with, that remains a mystery to this day. Having failed in this, France began claiming that rebels were waging a campaign of genocide against exiled Rwandan Hutus, resident in areas under rebel control. However, in March, a Dutch government official who visited the area said he could find no evidence to support the claims.
Evidently, the French hoped that such tales might provide them with the pretext for an invasion of Zaire, thereby propping up one of their last remaining friends in the region. France has still not recovered from the shock of losing control of neighbouring Rwanda.