The history of Zaire and Mobutu (1965–1997)

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Arms Exports to Zaire and the Trade of Zairean Women in Belgium
Lita Kamavuako and Mansoni Luvenga, GAMA, October 1995. President Mobutu says the three main pillars of his power are "money, the secret service and foreign policiy." How trade with Belgium supports this; arms exports to Zaire possibly in exchange for Zairean prostitutes.
Washington, Ottawa Plan Zaire Intervention
By Megan Arney, in the Militant, 25 November 1996. Using the pretext of securing "humanitarian aid" for more than 1 million refugees, Paris and other imperialist governments have been pushing for military intervention since the beginning of November.
Killings, turture and arbitrary arrests persist amidst international indifference
Amnesty International, 2 December 1996. Growing climate of insecurity and lawlessness. Human rights violations on all sides (English and French).
'Disappearances' / Fear for safety
Amnesty International Urgent Action Bulletin, 5 December 1996. The AFDL has been responsible for deliberate and arbitrary killings of hundreds of unarmed civilians, including many Rwandese refugees, since fighting broke out between the AFDL and the Zairian security forces in eastern Zaire in October 1996.
From Congo, to Zaire, and back again
By Mumia Abu-Jamal, 21 June 1997. Mobutu's rise, his maintenance, and even his fall from power, were orchestrated and managed from Western and European capitals. His office was held in the service of, and to protect the interests of, Western wealth.
Democratic Republic of Congo: UN investigation into massacres must not be based on concessions with government
From Amnesty International, 16 July 1997. Attempts by the UN to placate the DRC government could compromise the investigations into gross human rights violations. Thousands of Rwandese Hutu refugees and other unarmed civilians, including citizens and Burundian Hutu refugees, are reported to have been deliberately and arbitrarily killed by armed combatants since September 1996 and are still reported in June 1997.
Mobutu Sese Seko dies at 66
Associated Press, in Philadelphia Daily News, 8 September 1997. Mobutu, who for decades was a strong anti-communist ally of the United States in Africa, died of cancer at a military hospital in Morocco. Mobutu became a symbol of excess and when he was ousted after an eight-month rebellion in May, his resource-rich country of 45 million was in economic and political shambles. Mobutu was the last of Africa's Cold War relics.
Of exploitation, naked imperialism & death squads
By Victor Perlo, in People's Weekly World, 15 May 1997. ADF forces under Laurent Kabile close in on Kinshasa, but U.S. interventtion to forestall and progressive changse.