Mobutu Sese Seko : Friend or Foe

[Arecidea Kwilemie]

Should this be in the ‘Our Prisoner's Of War (POW)’ ?To many Mobutu Sese Seko is remembered as the tyrannical dictator with the stupendous leopard skin cap and thick black framed glasses, infamous for assisting in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Although warranted these perceptions may be, they leave many unaware of good he did (however little) and as a result many are unable to acknowledge Mobutu’s intelligence (however short sighted). So why ask the question “ “: strolling through the intense conflict in the Congo, you are bound to find some Congolese with Zairian merchandise ( shirts and hats especially). Unable to understand their “he defined a nation” devoted Mobutu stance; you assume to confront them, the general reply being “atleast we had no war and no need to worry of food or education”. No wonder political party ‘Union of Mobutuist Democrats’ named after Mobutu Sese Seko exists today in Congo.


MOBUTU PERSONAL QUOTES

"Zaire is the country that has been the most heavily exploited in the world. That is why farms, ranches, plantations, concessions, commerce, and real estate agencies will be turned over to sons of the country." - November 30, 1973, on the eve of "Zairianization"

“Who taught us corruption? I believe it was you, frankly... It's an import. It takes two to corrupt – the corrupted and the corrupte“ [In an interview with a French reporter, as featured in "Mobutu: King of Zaire."]

"In our African tradition, there are never two chiefs; there is sometimes a natural heir to the chief, but can anyone tell me that he has ever known a village that has two chiefs? That is why we Congolese, in the desire to conform to the traditions of our continent, have resolved to group all the energies of the citizens of our country under the banner of a single national party."

"We are resorting to this authenticity in order to rediscover our soul, which colonization had almost erased from our memories and which we are seeking in the tradition of our ancestors."
"Between a brother and a friend, the choice is clear." - Mobutu announcing the break in diplomatic relations between Zaire and Israel at the United Nations Security Council, November 4,1973

"Positive non-alignment, or indiscriminate openmindedness to the world, is a fundamental feature of Zaire's foreign policy. To this end, we are exerting ourselves in a bid to promote genuine cooperation among all countries that are willing to accept Zaire for what it is...The debacles that Zaire has faced and continues to face in various areas - colonization, alienation, exploitation, secession, rebellion - are due to the imperialist policies of the superpowers who have assumed the right to govern the world. Thus, we do not want to be involved directly or indirectly in any attempt to subjugate a state or group of states." - Mobutu explaining his foreign policy.

YouTube - mobutu

YouTube - mobutu

THE RISE OF MOBUTU

At independence in 1960, the Belgian commander of the Force Publique, Gen Émile Janssens, declared: “After independence equals before independence.” This statement caused a mutiny and a rapid Africanisation of the Force’s officer corps. The ‘Congolisation of the Army’ faced a lack of skills at officer and command levels. Officer ranks were distributed to all non-commissioned officers (NCOs) above the rank of sergeant. These men were instructed to “take their units in hand”. An officer training school was subsequently established at Luluabourg (now Kananga) early in 1961. A dispute for the top command of the army now arose between the regional and political army supporters of President Kasavubu and Prime Minster Lumumba. The contestants were colonels Lundula and Mobutu, both of whom had been NCOs in the previous Force Publique. Col Mobutu emerged as the winner.

On 14 September 1960, under Mobutu’s command, the Congolese National Army—Armée Nationale Congolaise—(ANC) suspended the 1959 Brussels round-table constitution. It was this first coup that gave President Kasavubu encouragement to oppose the legitimate Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba. The constitutional crisis that followed led to Lumumba’s assassination on 17 January 1961. Before this, the country had already fallen into civil war when, only ten days after independence, the Katanga copper province leader, Moise Tshombe, backed by his Gendarmérie Katangaise, declared Katanga’s secession.This secession was overcome after the intervention of United Nations (UN) troops. At the same time, the ANC had had to crush another attempt at independence, this time by His Imperial Majesty Kalonji in the Kasai diamond province. After these secession attempts and after the removal of Lumumba from government and his assassination in Katanga, where he had been taken to his enemy, Moise Tshombe, a rebellion broke out involving almost half of the country.

As this rebellion was seen as pro-Communist, it was heavily supported by communist countries, with the ‘free world’ ranged on the government side. Training programmes, armaments supplies and technical advisers from the Soviet Union, China, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Mali and Tanzania backed the rebels, while similar support from the United States, Belgium, anti-Castro Cubans and European and South African mercenaries came in on the side of the government. This civil war lasted from 1963 to 1967. Meanwhile Moise Tshombe had succeeded to the prime ministership after he had won the legislative elections in the capital, Kinshasa. The conflict between the President and the Prime Minister continued, providing the now Lt Gen Mobutu with the opportunity to overthrow President Kasavubu and to take power on 24 November 1965 “for five years”, which, in fact, became 32 years.


“ZAIRENISATION” CAMPAIGN OF 1970s“

"We are seeking our own authenticity, and we will find it because we wish, in the innermost fibers of our being to discover it." Mobutu "Zaireanisation" - a Mugabe-style transfer of the resources of foreigners to his cronies. "My mother arrived at work one day and there was a black man came to take possession of everything, including her car. She had to walk home," Embarking on a campaign of pro-Africa cultural awareness, stress on “mental decolonization” and “cultural disalienation” Mobutu renamed Geographic Names. He put Congolese in Schools, and Belgium failed to partition Congo, something they still wanted to do. Africans were ordered to drop their Christian names for African ones, and priests were warned that they would face 5 years' imprisonment if they were caught baptizing a Zairean child with a Christian name. Western attire and ties were banned, and men were forced to wear a tunic known as an abacost. He also nationalized foreign-owned firms and deported their European owners and managers. He handed the firms over to his family members and political allies, most of whom immediately robbed the companies’ blind, selling off their assets and keeping the money. The resulting economic damage caused by these actions forced Mobutu in 1977 to bring the Europeans back.

YouTube - MOBUTU A TABLE AVEC LA FAMILLE

YouTube - MOBUTU A TABLE AVEC LA FAMILLE

TRIBALISATION

Although there were several uprisings and attempted coups, all were crushed. Mobutu's solution was to stage public executions of those who were actual, potential or imagined threats to his regime, but he later found that it was much less trouble--and garnered much less bad publicity worldwide--if he just bought off his enemies, which he proceeded to do.

As is often the case in an army in the service of a dictator, President Mobutu’s army his Praetorian Guard, the DSP, was under his direct command and benefited from modern equipment and privileged funding and conditions of service. Officially, this division numbered close to 15,000 men, organised into two commando brigades loyal to the president. These men, in excellent physical condition, were trained by senior Israeli officers in Egypt and North Korea.To guarantee the loyalty of the army, President Mobutu began progressively appointing members of his own tribal group—and, rarely, some loyal officers from other ethnic groups—to key army posts. His DSP was led and manned by his ethnic Ngwandi brothers and other tribes from the northern area of Equateur province. At the same time, the entire army was subjected to a series of ethnic or tribal purifications on grounds such as fictitious coups. These ‘purifications’ were followed by the summary execution of suspected officers from other ethnic groups. In her book The Dinosaur, Colette Braeckman recalls numerous schemes that were part of President Mobutu’s strategy to prevent the regular army from destabilising his regime.

ZAIRIAN FOREIGN MILITARY INTERVENTIONS ANGOLA

As the protector of “Western ideological interests in central Africa”, President Mobutu committed two FAZ brigades to the 1970s’ war in Angola on the side of the National Front for the Liberation of Angola’s (FNLA’s) Holden Roberto, against the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola’s (MPLA’s) Augustino Neto. This intervention ended in disaster for the former and a victory for the Soviet- and Cubanbacked MPLA. In the opinion of the Zairian officers:

the failure of the operation was due to FNLA leader Holden Roberto’s refusal to order the final offensive on Luanda, while the Soviets and the Cubans had organised one of the largest airlifts of arms in history.

A decade later, and again with respect to Angola, the government of Zaire was engaged in long-term military support for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola’s (UNITA) Jonas Savimbi. This support took mainly the form of providing an arms transit link with the Kamina airbase, which was a secret US Central Intelligence Agency operation exposed by the New York Times in 1987. A decade later, and again with respect to Angola, the government of Zaire was engaged in long-term military support for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola’s (UNITA) Jonas Savimbi. This support took mainly the form of providing an arms transit link with the Kamina airbase, which was a secret US Central Intelligence Agency operation exposed by the New York Times in 1987.

YouTube - Mobutu president du zaire (congo)

YouTube - Mobutu president du zaire (congo)

ARMED CONFLICTS DURING PRESIDENT MOBUTU’S REGIME, AND ANGOLA’S REVENGE

The rundown and disorganised state of the army gave the Congolese no confidence in either of its twin roles, which were to defend the Congolese territory and to secure a military victory over a potential enemy. The army’s structural and operational insufficiencies became apparent on 8 March 1977, when armed elements of the National Front for the Liberation of Congo (FNLC) launched an attack from Angola on the mineral-rich Zairian province of Shaba (Katanga). It was only through the intervention of the Western community that the army and the regime it was supposed to protect were saved. In this case, the rationale for the Western mobilisation was the Cold War that had divided the world into two opposing blocs.

A year later, in 1978, there was a similar scenario when the ‘Second Shaba War’ was fought successfully, only because of military assistance provided by the West, Morocco and Israel.Similarly, again, Zaire was able to obtain co-operation in times of crisis from Taiwan and South Korea—something which more than anything else illustrated the masterly way in which the Mobutu regime was able to play the big powers off against one another in the context of the Cold War, and the strategic position and minerals and other riches of Zaire. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 did not bode well for Mobutu. His claim to be an anti-Communist bastion in the heart of Africa was irrelevant.

At the end of 1996, Laurent Kabila launched a flash liberation war from the Kivu region that ended with the capture of Kinshasa on 17 May 1997. The attacking force totalled some 40,000 AFDL troops including contingents of Congolese, Rwandans, Erytreans, Somalis, Ugandans, Tanzanians, Kenyans and Ethiopians. The aim of this force was to liberate both the Congo and all African countries under dictatorships. In the south, the AFDL received strong military support from Angola.


[after being asked in the 1990s if there was anything he regretted about being dictator of Congo/Zaïre] If I could do it all again, I would have been a farmer. Mobutu to his national security advisor, Honoré Ngbanda, "the Terminator"