By Norm Dixon
Popular discontent with Zaire's brutal and corrupt dictator, President Mobutu Sese Seko, has again erupted in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. Soldiers, angered by being paid with worthless banknotes, rose in rebellion. Elite troops loyal to Mobutu viciously crushed the mutiny, killing as many as 1000 people over several days.
The turmoil follows a long-running stand-off between the 27-year-
old dictatorship, which clings to power only because key 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ of the armed forces remain loyal, and the forces which support Zaire's "transitional" Prime Minister Etienne Tshisekedi.
In December, Mobutu's central bank began printing 5 million zaire (US$2) banknotes to pay civil servants and military personnel, who have not been properly paid for months. This would further fuel Zaire's 6000% annual inflation rate, Tshisekedi said as he declared the new notes illegal. Mobutu warned that businesses not accepting the notes would be closed and their owners charged with treason. He added that the central bank would soon issue a new Z10 million note.
Kinshasa's traders heeded the opposition's call to boycott the new banknotes. Desperate soldiers responded with mass protests and looting on January 28. In December, mutinies by rank-and-file soldiers had also broken out in smaller towns in the countryside. Anti-Mobutu demonstrations and riots have regularly occurred throughout the last two years. They have been met with murderous force by the military.
The political impasse began when Mobutu's long-time Western backers — France, Belgium and the United States — decided the dictator's days were numbered unless he agreed to demands for multiparty democracy. The collapse of the Soviet Union made Mobutu less useful as a pawn in southern Africa.
Washington concluded that continuing to support an intransigent Mobutu risked provoking a mass uprising and destroying US influence in this strategic, mineral-rich country. The influential Democrat congressman Stephen Solarz said in 1990: "Sooner or later, Mobutu will go. When that time comes, it will not be in our favour to have been perceived as propping up this discredited dictator." The US, France and Belgium believe the moderate leaders who dominate the opposition will be no threat to their interests.
Pillage
Mobutu seized power in 1965 with US support. Successive US governments provided hundreds of millions in aid to Zaire despite its reputation as one of Africa's most violent, undemocratic and corrupt regimes. The extent of lawlessness led Prime Minister Tshisekedi to dub Mobutu "the Zairean Caligula".
Twice, when internal rebellions threatened to overthrow Mobutu, French and Belgian troops, with US support, intervened to save him. Mobutu's collaboration has been central to the US and South African attempts to overthrow the Angolan government.
Conservative estimates put Mobutu's personal fortune, socked away in banks in Europe and the US, at over US$5 billion — half Zaire's foreign debt. There is evidence that in some years Mobutu and his associates diverted up to 20% of the state operating budget and 50% of the capital budget for their personal use. There has also been mammoth misappropriation of Zaire's mineral revenues from the state mining company Gecamines — in 1987 alone amounting to $400 million. On top of all this, Mobutu legally draws a presidential salary of $150 million per year.
While Mobutu and his cronies have grown ludicrously wealthy, Zaire has slid into despair. National income has shrunk at an accelerating rate since 1988, down 7.3% in 1991 and 8% in 1992. In November, a chicken cost Z4 million, yet an average government employee earns only Z8 million a month. Unemployment is 80%.
The country's budget deficit, at 25% of GDP, is the worst in sub-Saharan Africa after war-ravaged Angola. Inflation is the worst in Africa. Copper production, a main export earner, was only 135,000 tonnes in 1992, down from about 500,000 tonnes per year during the 1980s.
In April 1990, Western pressure forced Mobutu to allow the formation of rival political parties. Mobutu then agreed to the calling of a National Conference of all the newly formed parties. The opposition demanded that the conference be a sovereign body with the powers of a constituent assembly, which would create an interim government to oversee a transition to multiparty democracy. Mobutu insisted that the conference be only advisory.
When the conference met, Mobutu unsuccessfully attempted to stack it with his supporters. In September 1991, Mobutu reneged and sacked the National Conference-nominated Prime Minister Tshisekedi, appointed another politician lured to Mobutu's side from the opposition and closed the gathering.
Immediately, rank and file soldiers and opposition supporters took to the streets. French and Belgian paratroopers were airlifted into the capital by US planes, but unlike previous interventions, this one was restricted to the evacuation of
Western civilians. The tyrant retreated to a yacht moored in the Zaire River while his elite US- and Israeli-trained troops drowned the revolt in blood.
Western pressure
In response, virtually all Western aid was put on hold. France and Belgium demanded that Mobutu step down and leave the country. The US took a more conciliatory line, urging Mobutu to share power with Tshisekedi. US assistant secretary of state for African affairs Herman Cohen said Mobutu should remain in office in order to "control ... the security apparatus".
This US ambivalence was underlined when no objections were raised after Mobutu turned to two of Washington's key Middle Eastern allies, Egypt and Morocco, for help. In 1992, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak promised to supply Zaire with one year's supply of petroleum in exchange for electricity generated in Zaire. Egypt and Morocco also promised to seek a $300 million loan from the Gulf states on Zaire's behalf. Aid was also sought from North Korea and South Africa.
France, Belgium and the US demand that the National Conference be reconvened, refusing to resume aid until the conference itself requests it. Throughout 1991 and 1992 Mobutu permitted the conference to meet briefly on several occasions only to threaten military repression to close it down again. The threat is not an idle one. In February 1992, a "peace and hope" march by Christians in protest at the conference's suspension in January was viciously crushed and 33 people were massacred.
The conference has steadily undermined what little legitimacy Mobutu retained. In its brief sessions, investigations into Mobutu's ill-gotten wealth have been made and calls put forward for the name of the country, its flag, motto and anthem to be purged of all symbols associated with Mobutu.
In its last session, which began in July, the National Conference again called for Mobutu to be stripped of all but ceremonial powers and reasserted its right to draft a new constitution and prepare laws for a democratic electoral system.
The conference openly debated the previously taboo subject of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1961. Lumumba was the leader of Congo's independence struggle and the country's first and only democratically elected prime minister. Conference delegates accused both Mobutu and the CIA of the murder. Interestingly, some delegates charged that Etienne Tshisekedi was also involved.
Escalating confrontation
In August, the National Conference again nominated Tshisekedi as prime minister; succumbing to Western pressure, Mobutu acquiesced. Since then the confrontation has again escalated. Tshisekedi refused to broaden his government to include pro-Mobutu supporters. This led the army to seal off his office. Taking a considerable risk, the prime minister walked through the heavily guarded barricades on December 4.
The National Conference on the same day further upped the ante by creating a 453-member High Council of the Republic (HCR) charged with drawing up a new constitution. On December 11, Mobutu issued a decree suspending the HCR. On December 14, crack troops of the special presidential division barred access to HCR's meeting venue. In this tense situation, an explosion of anger was inevitable, and the introduction of the worthless banknotes was the trigger.
Belgian foreign minister Willy Claes warned in early December that Brussels may intervene militarily to support Tshisekedi. Taking this threat seriously following the most recent disturbances, Mobutu refused to allow Belgian troops to enter the capital while allowing 150 French troops to land.
In a joint communiqué on February 4, the US, France and Belgium told Mobutu that they insist that he transfer power to Tshisekedi.