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Mobutu Sese Seko - history.

Publié le 26/05/2013

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Mobutu Sese Seko - history. I INTRODUCTION Mobutu Sese Seko Joseph Désiré Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko) seized control of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a 1965 coup. Mobutu ruled the country (renamed Zaire in 1971) for more than three decades, stifling political opposition and amassing huge sums of money while the country's economy crumbled. In 1997 a widespread rebellion forced Mobutu to relinquish power and flee the country, which officially reverted to its former name. Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-1997), president of Zaire, who seized power by force in 1965 and held it for more than three decades. Mobutu kept a chokehold on political power, amassing vast amounts of wealth while his country collapsed. After Mobutu was overthrown in 1997, Zaire was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. II EARLY LIFE AND CAREER African Leader Summit, 1967 The Summit Conference of East and Central Africa--held in Kampala, Uganda in December 1967--brought together a number of figures who were or would become extremely significant in modern African history. This photograph provides an interesting glimpse of these leaders at a somewhat unguarded moment--Julius Nyerere and Jean-Bédel Bokassa appear to be sharing a joke, which also amuses Grégoire Kayibanda, Milton Obote, and Kenneth Kaunda. Six of the ten leaders identified here would eventually be overthrown. Three would go down in infamy as ruthless, corrupt dictators. Two remained active in politics into the 21st centur...
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« Moroccan and Belgian troops and American and French military assistance.

His political opponents formed the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) in 1982, butthe party’s leaders were continually harassed and imprisoned throughout the 1980s.

Mobutu consolidated his power by sharing the country’s wealth with political allies, asystem often described as a kleptocracy.

Reportedly absconding with billions of dollars in Western aid and export earnings generated by the country's mineral wealth,Mobutu amassed a vast personal fortune, believed to have peaked at $4 billion in the mid-1980s.

Meanwhile a potentially wealthy country, plagued with corruption andmismanagement, suffered economic ruin. In the late 1980s, as the ideological and geopolitical struggle between Western nations and communist nations known as the Cold War diminished, Mobutu became lesssignificant to his Western allies.

In October 1990 the Congress of the United States cut direct aid to Mobutu's regime because of corruption and human rights abuses.

Underdomestic and international pressure for reform, Mobutu announced the creation of a multiparty system in 1991.

However, he shrewdly sidestepped any real progresstowards free multiparty elections.

In 1991 and 1992 Mobutu wrangled with a conference organized to draft a new constitution and organize elections.

Throughout the earlyand mid-1990s Mobutu, then suffering from prostate cancer, continued to cling to power, despite rising opposition and economic disaster.

He began spending most of histime away from the capital, Kinshasa, at a palace he had built near his northern ancestral village of Gbadolite. IV MOBUTU’S FALL In late 1996 a small ethnic rebellion in eastern Zaire suddenly expanded, routing Zaire’s underfunded and poorly disciplined army.

Led by veteran guerrilla fighter Laurent-Désiré Kabila and supported by several neighboring countries, including Angola and Rwanda, the rebellion soon developed into an anti-Mobutu revolution.

MeanwhileMobutu left the country to undergo medical treatment in France, Switzerland, and Monaco.

Despite the government’s hiring of foreign mercenaries, by the time Mobutureturned to Zaire in March 1997 the rebels had captured most of eastern Zaire and were rapidly pushing west toward Kinshasa. Days before Kabila’s capture of Kinshasa in May 1997 Mobutu relinquished power and fled the country.

Increased expenses were believed to have reduced his wealth;however, he still owned luxury residences and real estate in Morocco, in South Africa, and throughout Europe.

Having ruled with an iron grip for nearly 32 years, he died inexile in Rabat, Morocco, in September 1997.

Impoverished and unstable, the Congo remains in the grip of his legacy. Contributed By:Randall Arlin FegleyMicrosoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.

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