RDC
Savior of the people

“It had taken the politicians five years to ruin the country; therefore, for five years, there will be no more political party activity in the country. I will be the president and you will support me without questions if you don’t want the bad times to return." Mobutu Sese Seko proclaimed the state of emergency in 1965. This way, he gained a lot of power. He centralised the state. Everything was in the name of peace and wellbeing as he tried to convince his people and maybe also himself. The father of the nation in his urge to fulfil the interests of the country did not want to burden the people with political decisions, that were considered dirty and of no not interest for honest people anyhow. From this nuisance he saved the parliament too, not at once but for good. From this moment onward, he could freely decide the fortunes of his people and his country. He did it with the greatest attention.
For all the hard work he did, Mobutu needed money. The money was kindly offered by the state, whose foreign debt amounted 5 billion dollars – the fact he had the same amount on his Swiss bank account in 1984 is of course unrelated. Between his numerous houses, Mobutu travelled with his fleet of Mercedes-Benz. He had to carefully choose the way in order not to damage his cars on the rotting roads that were falling apart throughout his country. The state infrastructures were poor. So was the quality of life. Most of the people struggled with poverty. The inflation was rising to the stars, so it happened that Zaire had to stop paying its loan to Belgium in 1989. Under such circumstances it is hard to understand how Mobutu happened to be that rich. Did he keep the money coming from international military and humanitarian help for himself? Was he well rewarded from both sides involved in the cold war for his neutrality? Is it due to his skills in fraud? After all he did not spend that much… The only workers Mobutu payed regulary were his bodyguards. Most of the time, workers pretended to do their jobs and Mobutu pretended to pay them. He had to take care of everybody, hadn't he? Firstly and rightly of himself, and then of his family and friends, which is absolutely understandable and humane. To thank him as he deserved, the media put at the beginning of each evening news a picture showing him descending through clouds from the heavens. Mobutu has been also the only one to be mentioned by his name whereas the others were just designated by their functions.
Before his peaceful death in the Rabat hospital he successfully dictated the number of his Swiss bank account to one of his relatives?

Photo 2: Horst Faas, Associated Press
Photo 5: Suzanne Marmion
http://www.yourcorrespondent.com/congo_photos.htm