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Article: Mobutu Is Unchallenged `Messiah' of Zaire; President of 35 Million Has Fortune Estimated at $5 Billion
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- November 10, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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During a debate this year on Zaire's economic sickness, a number
of professors from the University of Kinshasa made unflattering
references to the leadership qualities of Mobutu Sese Seko, their
president.
They spoke of misguided economic policy and corruption. Mobutu
sat in on some of the debate, and afterward he asked that the
professors be brought to him.
As the undisputed, all-powerful leader of black Africa's
second-largest country, Mobutu had a number of options in disposing
of the prickly academics.
He could have had them tortured-as he allegedly ordered the
torture of a former foreign minister who did not please him. He
could have had them "rusticated"- a technique by which ...