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Article: The Troubled Inheritance Of Joseph Kabila; Leader Faces Congo's Past, and His Family's
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- November 5, 2003
- 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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There are no crocodile shoes, no fat cigars, no flowing whiskey.
Nor does President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo
wear paranoia on his sleeve. He doesn't spout ideological dictums,
either, or make an art of being inscrutable.
He is not his father, and that has been his most instructive
credential. He is not the former Congolese president Laurent Desire
Kabila, who vexed the international community with his intransigence,
his Marxist rhetoric and his stillborn reform agenda after ousting
Mobutu Sese Seko.
The elder Kabila was assassinated in January 2001, and his 29-
year-old son took his place, elevated by his father's government,
becoming the youngest president in ...