Mobutu's Game (2025) s01e03 Episode Script
Descent into hell
founder of the Popular
Movement of the Revolution.
Thank you.
You're covered in dust.
There we go.
There's a lot of dust!
Every Zairian, from birth,
is a member of the MPR.
Much better. Thank you.
We are one big family
that unites all 24 million
Zairians.
And every child born
will grow up
and live their entire lives
as an activist for the MPR.
So it's compulsory?
I don't force them,
but the people of Zaire
want to live in unity.
I'm sure you can
see that too.
Mobutu had a vision
of a great Zaire,
a vision of a great country
and a great people.
After being put in power
by Belgium and the US,
Mobutu took
measures and created
the MPR, which became
the sole political party.
The state of Zaire
became Mobutu's property.
In the early years,
Congo was developing.
The Congolese
economy was thriving.
Due to his love of power,
his love for dancing
and propaganda everywhere,
he became drunk with glory.
He had won it all,
he controlled everything.
But then everything collapsed.
The economy was failing,
people were starving
and his main ally, the West,
was showing him
many yellow cards, saying,
"Be careful,
this isn't working."
Mobutu felt threatened
from all sides.
And to stay in power,
he sacrificed Congo.
MOBUTU'S GAME
EPISODE III
DESCENT INTO HELL
UNITED NATIONS,
NEW YORK
I left the Congo
in December 1973
and I was in exile
for 17 years and a half.
What happened was,
in one of my classes I was teaching,
we were discussing
concepts of groups.
What is a group, a class,
a caste, a clique and so on.
A student said,
"Mr Nzongola, you always
give us examples from
Senegal, Nigeria,
Kenya, Zimbabwe.
Tell us about Zaire.
We're in Zaire,
not in those countries,
what are
the examples of this?"
I said okay,
"I'll give you one. Clique.
This country
is run by a clique
led by Mobutu."
And I was recorded.
One of the students
had a tape recorder,
recording my lectures.
So he went and
he gave it to Security.
So I was called to go
to the security police.
And so they played
the thing.
"Did you say that?"
"Yeah, I said that."
I said, "What is wrong with that?
Isn't that the truth?"
They all looked
at me, shocked.
They think I'm a fool,
that I'm mentally ill
or something.
I said, "Well, isn't
that the truth?
Isn't Mobutu the head
of a clique in this country?"
They said, "You are insulting
the Head of State."
It went on for four hours.
They came in and they had
other information on me
they had put
together for years.
My nephews who worked for the
security police told me that,
"You are on the blacklist
so don't come back here".
This was a bloody dictatorship
where a person's life meant nothing.
You could be picked up
and your family would
never know where you were
or what has happened
to you. You're gone.
Why do we have to do
this interview in secret?
Well, because we no longer
have freedom of speech here.
If we were to do
this interview
in a public place
you would be deported
from the country,
while I would rot in prison,
or maybe I'd be beheaded.
And when you have
conversations in private,
can you speak freely?
No, we even
distrust our wives,
we don't dare share
our real thoughts with others.
Would a wife
turn in her husband?
Yes, that happens sometimes,
so we don't dare say
what we really think.
From the 1970s onwards,
Mobutu had become paranoid,
fearing a coup against him.
So he instilled fear
in the hearts of all Zairians,
of all Congolese.
I remember being with my father in
the village. To talk about Mobutu,
even when we were alone,
you felt like he was watching you.
Are you afraid,
Mr President?
Afraid of whom? Of what?
Fear of the future,
fear of jealous rivals perhaps?
When you have
people like mine,
nothing else matters.
And my conscience
is completely clear.
My conscience has
always been clear,
so I'm not going to be afraid
of anyone or anything.
The whole repression
began almost immediately
after Mobutu became
the head of the country.
First, in 1966, with the
hanging of those four politicians.
Then the killing
of Mulele in 1968.
The way that Mulele was killed
I mean, it was simply shocking.
They started cutting off
his body parts,
cutting this and this
and all that.
When the person
is still alive!
Then, of course, the bloody
murder of Congolese students
of the Lovanium
University in 1969.
Here were university students
who had grievances against
the Belgian professors,
they found them to be racist.
Also, the curriculum was
teaching about Europe,
and nothing about
Africa and about the Congo.
So, those students were protesting
on very understandable grounds,
there was nothing
against the regime.
In 1969, it was actually
a demand that had the support
of the government.
Then, at some point, we learned
that Mobutu had rejected
the original agreement.
That's why we went
on a peaceful march
to submit
the memorandum
in order to ask Mobutu
to reconsider this decision.
When we took the bus at 5am,
we were very
surprised to find
soldiers blocking our way.
There were no weapons
on display at that point.
They stopped us with
their bodies,
stopping the buses so that
we couldn't flood into the city.
So we got off our buses
and we were scattered.
At that point
Mobutu positioned soldiers
at strategic points
and it ended in bloodshed.
We still don't know
exactly how many died,
but it was at least 50 students.
Mobutu took all the bodies.
The dead were quickly taken away by
soldiers and no-one ever saw them.
They say they were buried
in the river. No one knows.
No one knows
where they were buried.
We have never
been able to find out.
We just don't know.
JOSETTE SHAJE TSHILUILA
EX-STUDEN
Six people, six students,
were sentenced to death.
Everywhere, in all sectors,
Mobutu was trying
to reduce the threat.
Everywhere!
Here, he also decided
to close the university.
He said: "For two years,
all of you will be in
the army to learn discipline."
There were abuses.
They handed the female
students over to the soldiers
who took advantage
and groped their breasts.
Mobutu came to see us
and made us march
in front of him.
He looked at us with contempt,
holding his cane. It was awful.
Meanwhile,
they brought the students back
and beat them
in front of him.
He looked at the scene
with indifference.
He wanted to break us,
psychologically.
It was the start
of the country's downfall.
Mobutu, thinking he
could do anything he wanted,
took so much for himself
that Congolese society
began falling apart.
In Congo,
the culture of cheating,
total corruption in society,
all of that was
introduced by Mobutu.
Apart from this lack of freedom,
if I say that here
there's a very small group
that's very rich
and the masses are very poor,
is that right?
Absolutely right.
Who taught us corruption?
I believe it was you.
Let me be frank.
What do you call corruption?
Before I came to power,
from 1960 to 1965,
people would come here with money
and say to our politicians,
"Do this, do that,"
or would go to military officers and
say, "Take this money and do this".
This system wasn't
invented in Zaire.
It was imported
to this country.
We are fighting against
this evil import.
There's a story that's interesting
in these declassified documents
from the CIA,
where Mobutu
says to the CIA,
"Well, I took this money
out of the army budget,
and I spent it on
all these things that
have nothing to do
with the military.
But they found out about it.
Some people might
charge me with something,
so I want you, the CIA, to give me
money to reimburse the budget."
So basically,
you have Mobutu
who is stealing money
from the military budget
and then the CIA is bribing
him to cover it up.
So you have two forms of bribery
going on, reinforcing each other.
That's how the
government worked,
that's how Mobutu worked.
So, through the CIA,
and I don't want
to exempt the Belgians,
who were doing some
of the same things,
but from the
moment of independence,
Mobutu was always
corrupt as can be.
It was kind of
disguised at first,
but then, in the early 70s,
he nationalised companies,
he called it "Zairianisation",
then it came out that he was
really this corrupt guy.
My fellow citizens
and dear activists,
today must be, for us,
a turning point
in our history.
Therefore, I announce
certain major decisions
I have made
to bring an end to
exploitation in our country.
During colonial times,
with the apartheid system,
businesses and plantations
were always in foreign hands.
They were owned by the Portuguese,
Spanish, Belgians, French or Greeks.
Even after independence in 1960,
this system continued to exist.
But Mobutu
couldn't understand why
there were
no Congolese merchants,
why Westerners
owned everything.
Mobutu came up with
his solution: "Zairianisation".
This meant that
all the Greeks and the other
foreigners had to leave
and that the Congolese
people would become
the owners of these farms.
So they told
European merchants,
Imagine I've just turned up
in your office or your shop.
"This business has
been assigned to me.
Go ask the government about it.
Give me the keys."
They snatched people's keys.
"Get out!"
A number of Greeks,
Portuguese and Belgians
killed themselves.
These people had come over
with their great-grandparents
and only owned
a few shops
or a few plantations.
It was chaos.
It was a redistribution
of wealth.
We went after
their private capital,
seizing their
money and assets.
But this wasn't given to the
average Congolese citizen,
it went to Mobutu's friends
who already had great power.
Who took over these
companies? It was Ministers,
Mobutu's family
and friends of theirs.
They shared this
wealth among friends.
It was Mobutu's entourage at
the time who benefitted from this.
"I'll take this plantation, but
I know nothing about their finances,
the volume of their production,
or anything about them."
And of course, they took pleasure
in getting rich over the money
that they found
in those corporations
and selling whatever
they had to sell.
Sometimes buildings,
sometimes equipment.
Then the
corporations disappeared,
there was no more business.
That really created
a terrible crisis
for the Congolese economy.
This is how
Mobutu's system worked.
The Mobutists
lived in opulence,
they stole money
all the time.
They took money
from their budgets
and spend it on themselves,
while people are suffering,
people are not being fed correctly.
Mobutu, he told the people
publicly, in a stadium,
that if you have
to steal, steal.
But steal little by little
and invest in your country.
This was a president of a country
giving advice to his people.
So it was institutionalised
more than institutionalised, it was
condoned by the Head of State.
BEWARE OF SCAMMERS!!!
I'm a Mobutist
because there were good things
done during Mobutu's time
that should be
continued today.
The power we have now
comes from Mobutu, right?
We used to have
take ferries to cross the river,
then Mobutu
built us a bridge.
Wasn't it Mobutu
who did this?
There are certain
things Mobutu did
But I focus on progress,
compared to stagnation
and chronic poverty.
He came in
and changed things.
I admired that.
I like it when people use force
in the name of progress.
It's like with colonisation.
"Oh, Leopold II
cut off people's hands."
But Leopold II's
children saved lives thanks to
the hospitals they built.
So, I'm not someone
who only focuses
on the hand-cutting
side of things. No.
Because I know what
it's like to govern
and I sometimes used
the forceful approach too.
I'm someone who says,
"I don't believe in democracy."
We need strong leadership
to be able to move forward,
because democracy won't work
when you have poverty.
A certain level of wealth
is needed for democracy to work.
If there's corruption,
this is because
we have poverty too.
I think poor people
are easily corrupted.
When you come to them
offering them something,
they can be corrupted.
Poor people sell themselves.
They don't have the pride to say,
"You can't buy me."
They're not like that.
They're poor people.
If I may, Mr Engulu,
some people
say that Mr Engulu
lives in a big
house with a pool.
And that he got rich
during Mobutu's era.
You know,
we're all born different.
We're born different.
Some people are born smart
and others aren't.
As for me,
I was born intelligent.
Even at school,
I was often top of the class.
With my money,
I try to imitate white people,
I want to be
like white people.
When I build something,
I build it with my intelligence.
I say, "I, Engulu,
can do this too."
And when I have money,
I invest it in such things, I say,
"My swimming pool
will be this big."
I invested in the pool,
just like I invested
in my plantations
back home.
That's just how I am.
Because I was trained
by white people,
so I imitate them now.
All the structures
of Mobutu's system,
the 30-40 of his closest supporters,
all of them took advantage
Our country is not
the first or last
to face temporary difficulties
with its economy
and finances.
Zaire is aware of
its difficulties
and has taken the initiative
to meet with its creditors
and have an open discussion
to agree on
a new payment schedule.
We are not beggars,
because we
acknowledge our debts.
Where did Congo's
debt come from?
A prime example
of Congo's debt
is Inga dam.
Inga dam came
into existence
because, to make
Western banks profitable,
Western bankers came
and said to Mobutu,
"Here's some money,
build Inga."
But Inga met
no economic need.
It wasn't profitable either.
Furthermore, we were also
testing a new high-voltage line,
a 1,700 km DC line,
that cost more
than the dam itself!
Through this case, Mobutu
clearly showed that
he was serving
Western interests
more than
Congolese interests.
I arranged the financing
for that power line.
Mobutu wanted to send electricity
to the Katanga province.
Katanga was never
friendly to Mobutu.
So he said,
"Now they will be dependent
on me for electricity."
Of course, it was
ridiculous because
there was no power going to any city
in between Inga and Katanga.
It was just a power line
just to Katanga
so that Mobutu could say,
"I control their power."
In 1974, there was this very big
boxing match held in Kinshasa,
Muhammad Ali
versus George Foreman,
as a way of advertising
to the West
how great Mobutu was
and he was putting on
this big, international fight.
This was done,
partly, to distract
the people Kinshasa
from their poverty.
Things were
getting very tense.
The way the fight
was financed
was they created
a corporation in Switzerland.
$10.85 million was put
into this corporation
which was controlled
by President Mobutu.
It came from the budget
of the Congo government.
And then all the money from
the fight goes to Mobutu,
all 42.5% of the
gross revenues.
Many tens of
millions of dollars.
How does that man
care about his people?
At a time when the economy
had completely broken down,
he tried other schemes,
like the satellite
he wanted to put in orbit
with the help of the
Germans in 1976 or 1977.
To promote his country,
he wanted to put a
satellite in space
so that people
could see Zaire.
That was another failure,
millions were wasted
on this project.
It was almost
a perfect metaphor.
The Mobutu regime
was sinking,
it was falling apart.
The economy was failing.
The Congolese people
was living in poverty
and when Zairian public
opinion denounced him,
when the people decided
they wanted him gone,
revolt broke out.
The Shaba War
was a patriotic act
led by Congolese soldiers,
"Zairian" soldiers at the time,
who were aligned with the USSR
and who fled to Angola.
They said:
"Mobutu in power? No, no, no."
They went to Angola
as they feared being executed
by Mobutu.
They said, "Let's wait,
when the time is right,
we'll go home.
When the time came
they told their brothers,
"Move into Katanga."
And Mobutu
couldn't believe it.
SHABA / KATANGA 1977-1978
Kolwezi, southern Shaba.
This is Zaire's
economic heartland.
Whoever controls Kolwezi controls
copper and cobalt production
and decides the fate
of the Zairian nation.
We're dealing
with bandits here.
They are gangsters equipped
by the Soviet Union,
who have been trained
and are led by Cubans.
Mobutu,
after killing all of the
progressive leaders in 1964,
didn't want to see any new
revolutionary movements emerge,
or old ones resurface.
So the best way for him
to go about things
was repression, was to
eliminate them one by one.
If you were suspected
of being a communist
you would disappear.
So I was in danger
and I fled Zaire
to join movements that would
continue the fight against Mobutu.
Castro had sent
Cubans to Angola.
And this was a problem
because the US government
didn't want to send troops
to fight in Africa.
That was a long-standing policy.
But, also, we didn't want
a Cold War in Africa.
So we decided to do
what we could to help.
What we did is we sent our
airplanes to help Mobutu.
These were tremendous
airplanes: the C-10!
This was the biggest airplane
that the US had,
and I think it still is.
They could put tanks in there
and all sorts of things.
When we arrived in Kolwezi,
the Zairian army had already
ditched their uniforms.
They weren't fighting.
"We're not soldiers,"
they said. They were scared.
The rebels are using
guerrilla tactics.
The Zairian army
has been overwhelmed.
Mobutu never
developed a strong army.
His army was an army
with corrupt generals.
The soldiers were not
very well paid,
this is why they would
simply revert to looting,
to harassing the population
and grabbing things from the people.
They would help themselves.
That's why these people
coming in from Angola
could take the city
of Kolwezi so easily.
This time,
Mobutu was in real trouble.
General, there are 4,000
Europeans being held hostage.
Will you be able
to get them out of there?
I believe I already told you we're
implementing all possible measures.
When he saw that,
in less than a day,
Kolwezi had nearly fallen,
he was terrified.
He had to come up
with a way of convincing
the West to come
and help him.
It's unbelievable,
there are no words
to describe the horror
of the massacres here in Kolwezi.
Along the city's
wide avenues,
in the European districts,
dozens of bodies
line the streets.
Entire families were slaughtered
by crazed soldiers.
What he did
I mean, it's cynical!
He did kill the Europeans,
pretending that they
were killed by the rebels,
and therefore justified
bringing in external powers
to help save his regime.
I'm a father myself.
When I saw
with my own eyes
the headless body
of a 2-year-old girl
Because we could see
How do you think I felt?
We never killed civilians.
Our problem was
with the military.
This theory
is still circulating today,
because, according
to some sources,
the areas where
the hostages were killed
wasn't in rebel territory.
That area was still being
held by Mobutu's soldiers.
So if Mobutu did this,
he was taking a huge risk,
but I guess it paid off.
So France under
Giscard d'Estaing
decided to intervene
in Kolwezi.
When the French withdrew,
Belgium rushed in to ensure
that the territory wasn't lost.
America provided
logistical support.
Always the famous trio:
the US, France and Belgium.
Once again, Mobutu
was saved by the West,
but he started
to be quite clearly criticised
from some in the West.
And, to keep the
West as an ally,
Mobutu had to pay up.
But at that time
money couldn't flow out easily,
due to restrictions imposed
by the IMF and the World Bank.
Meanwhile the Congolese people,
the Zairian people,
were living in total poverty
and destitution.
But for some, money was
still flowing freely.
Mobutu contributed
around 50 million
to the election campaign
of Ronald Reagan.
50 million? Where did
this money come from?
Wealth that left the country
came from our mines:
copper, cobalt, zinc.
From Kolwezi.
The mines had been saved.
However,
this flood of money wasn't
meant for the Congolese people.
I'll say to anyone that will listen
that the Central Bank of Congo
was used by Mobutu
as his own private fund.
But as the negative image
surrounding Mobutu started
to become overwhelming,
both in the West
and in Congo,
what could he do
to defuse the situation?
And then Mobutu showed how
much of a political player he was.
He took a gamble.
Being cunning,
he organised
parliamentary elections.
He pretended to establish
democracy in the country,
to hand over
power to others.
But this was just a decoy.
These MPs wouldn't
have any real power.
It was just for show.
He said, "Gentlemen, nothing will
ever be the same from now on."
But when he said
nothing would be the same,
it actually got worse.
I founded the PRM,
the Popular
Revolutionary Movement.
Therefore, no one
is better suited than me
to grasp the true meaning
of its doctrine,
which is that of Mobutism,
meaning my ideas,
teachings and actions.
And while I'm alive,
having a two-party or
a multi-party system in Zaire?
No way.
No, no, no.
Absolutely not.
To build our ever
more beautiful country
Around a majestic river
Around a river
In the early 80s,
13 members of parliament
sent a letter to Mobutu,
of 52 pages,
telling him they cannot live
to the dictate of one man.
It is time to go back
to a multi-party system.
THIS JOKE HAS
GONE ON FOR TOO LONG
And to show their commitment
to this change,
they started
wearing suits with ties,
which were not allowed
in the Congo at that time.
With the open letter,
we were the first politicians
to directly confront Mobutu.
So wherever we went,
all of us 13 MPs
was treated like a god.
This document made waves.
Mobutu was in big trouble.
But they were
not revolutionaries,
they were
Mobutu's former friends,
they helped him to create
the single-party system.
These people had since been
removed from the circles of power.
Trust me, I don't need
bitter people around me.
I just need the
27 million citizens
that I lead.
If a few people feel bitter
about certain things,
let these dogs bark,
our caravan must keep moving.
Our caravan is made up
of 27 million people.
In the 1980s,
when I was working for Congress,
we arranged a meeting at our hotel,
with them in Kinshasa.
They all had ties and suits and so
forth, the western costume,
instead of the Zairian
Mao-suit, type thing.
After the meeting,
one of the
congressmen realises
he's forgotten his wallet
or something.
So he comes
back to the hotel.
As he comes back
to the hotel,
he saw the same people we had met
with, in their nice, Western suits,
being beaten, kicked,
hit with
metal-studded belts, whipped,
right in front of the hotel!
And their cars were
all being smashed.
One day,
I was heading home
with my wife and children
and the governor came
with his entire staff
to teach me
a lesson in public.
I hope you're
recording this, sir.
I sure hope so. Good.
So they arrived and everyone,
the whole town
had to come and watch.
"Look, everyone,
this unrepentant man
has dared
to contradict Mobutu!"
They slapped me.
I passed out.
I didn't know they'd
left me naked afterwards.
They left me naked,
stark naked, in front
of my wife and kids!
The whole town were
made to watch.
We went to the
security office
where other agents
were waiting for me.
For more torture sessions.
In front of my wife and
It was horrific!
Banned from civil
and political rights
for five years.
Mr Ngalula, Mr Tshisekedi,
Mr Makanda, Mr Kapita and Mr Kiunga.
Mobutu felt threatened
from all sides.
Paranoia started
to consume him.
He didn't trust
anyone anymore.
Not even the Westerners
that he continued to pay,
as they were speaking
ill of him at that time.
He felt unsafe,
so Mobutu tried
to protect himself.
The Zairian people have stopped
applauding our policeman
and that's a shame.
But don't worry,
a major reform is underway
regarding our police forces.
We will soon have
an intelligence service
as they have in all
organised countries.
A service able
to keep us informed
about all events,
both international and domestic.
The Security Service had played
a key role since the 1970s,
but from then on,
the real power
was held by
the Security Service.
Everyone was
watching everyone else
and that's how he
controlled all of us.
When I became
the head of Security
I was close to Mobutu,
he called me every day.
Like Israel,
Mobutu had a long reach.
ANDRE-ALAIN ATUNDU,
ZAIRIAN SECURITY
We had regular reports
on events in the Middle East,
whilst we reported
to Israeli services
about events in our region.
We exchanged
information with them.
We were operating
on the highest level.
Mobutu wielded
enormous power
because of the information
he had about events
taking place
across the globe.
If you were an opponent of Mobutu,
where could you flee to?
In African countries,
they would catch you.
In the West they would
catch you too.
Mobutu was friends
with the Belgians, with the West,
the French, British
and other powers.
Where could you run to?
Murderer! Mobutu!
Murderer! Mobutu!
How many opponents came
to Belgium and were
mistreated there?
How many?
Mobutu! Murderer!
Mobutu! Murderer!
Yesterday or the day before,
an opponent who is in Belgium now,
said, "We expected a lot
from the president, but now
he's strengthening his power
through the means of force."
And all day long
on Belgian TV you talk about,
"People should take
action against Mobutu."
Take action? How?
You're thousands
of miles away.
Political prisoners were put
in airplanes or helicopters,
simply to open the thing
and let the people
drop into the ocean
or into big lakes to die.
Because Mobutu
didn't want them.
That's what being
a leader means.
When your power
is challenged,
when your authority
is threatened,
you must
neutralise such threats
one way or another,
even if that means sending
someone to their death.
You must defend your country
by any means possible.
If, to defend my country,
I must kill you,
then I have no choice.
An intelligence agent
is not a dangerous man.
He's someone who helps
to protect society
and who takes risks
on behalf of the people.
He's dangerous for enemies
of the Republic, yes.
I'm dangerous
for enemies of our Republic,
but not to the people
of my country.
By that time,
when I started to work for Congress,
and one of my issues
working for Congress was Zaire,
it was clear that
the people in the country
didn't like Mobutu.
That, of course, only makes
you more repressive.
That makes you even more
living in your own world,
more detached from reality.
Increasingly, Mobutu revealed
another side of his personality.
According to those
who knew him,
he was drawn to fetishes,
to witchcraft and Nganga.
They say that Mobutu
couldn't sleep at night
because he was
afraid of demons.
Mobutu went to France
to visit Mr Mitterrand,
France's socialist leader
at that time.
At the same time,
in Angola,
our neighbour,
there were 50,000 Cubans.
He called upon all the great
sorcerers of the world,
including Chinese ones
who charged him
two million dollars,
to cast a spell
on Mitterrand.
They stomped around
with Mitterrand's photo.
How to cast a spell on him,
how to control him?
They took a photo of him
and chanted and stuff.
Apparently, it worked!
Our goal?
Unity in diversity.
Our goal?
Unity in diversity.
Long live our
founding president!
Long live our
founding president!
He sought ways to stay
on top of everyone else.
After being a general,
he was given various titles:
"inspired guide",
"helmsman", etc.
But that wasn't enough
for him anymore.
His latest idea
was "marshal".
Then elections
were organised.
It was the same as
in the 1970 elections,
Mobutu was
the only candidate.
Marshal of Zaire,
your insight and wisdom
descended from heaven
like divine knowledge,
spontaneously.
His blood is
greater than truth,
our magnificent strategist
KINSHASA VOTES
100% FOR MOBUTU
That same day, at 3 or 4pm,
it was announced across Zaire
that Mobutu had won
99.9% of the votes.
Thank you!
In some regions,
in some parts of
our country,
people were singing
and dancing and said,
"We'll vote for you, 500%."
Others said, "1000%."
Mobutu was living
in another world.
He no longer
knew where he was.
Fear was taking over him.
He thought a coup could
happen in Kinshasa.
So he moved to Gbadolite,
his home region,
1,000 kilometres from
Kinshasa, out in the bush.
He had a grand palace
built there.
Mobutu lived in
excessive luxury.
He had champagne
for breakfast.
Everything had
to be luxurious.
He wanted to build
Congo's version of Versailles.
He had a bit of a complex
from having been colonised.
He desperately wanted
to live like a European,
like a white man,
doing even worse things to us
than the Europeans did.
He'd throw birthday parties
and get cakes from where?
From Europe. He'd charter
a plane just for a cake.
On top of that
he felt compelled
to buy castles in Europe
He went to Switzerland
and Cap-Martin.
All the money he stole here
he invested in
European castles.
And when he wanted lamb
it had to be flown
in from Argentina.
It was really excessive.
And all of this was
done with public money,
hundreds of millions
of dollars were spent
on the whims
of an insecure man.
His Excellency,
Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko.
1989, United Nations, New York
On 4 October 1973,
16 years ago today,
I addressed
the General Assembly
of the United Nations
for the first time.
Since then, many situations
all across the globe
have changed dramatically.
Mobutu is a murderer!
Long live Patrice Lumumba
and the Congolese people!
At the moment
Mobutu is a murderer!
Long live the spirit of Patrice
Lumumba and the Congolese people!
Mobutu is a murderer!
Long live Patrice Lumumba
and the spirit of the
Congolese people!
Mobutu is a murderer!
As I take the floor
for the second time
at this podium
US policymakers,
they kind of knew this guy
has basically failed.
The US continued to support Mobutu
when everybody kind of knew
there wasn't any real Communist
threat to Congo anymore.
But they had convinced
themselves, by that time,
that Mobutu was all
that held it together.
They had become so engaged
with the notion of Mobutu
they couldn't imagine
the country without him.
It was a failure
of imagination.
We're very, very pleased
to have you with us today.
Thank you, sir.
For them, it was like:
without Mobutu,
it's the Heart of Darkness.
It's Conrad's novel.
It's descending into
God-knows-what.
But the more important reason
for the continuing support
was: he's our friend.
He was the chosen leader
by the United States.
So the commitment to him
was a commitment to ourselves.
It was: are we going
to renounce not only a friend,
who has helped us
in the past,
but also someone
that we ourselves put in?
That was there
in their minds.
And I think that
helped keep them on board
as he drove the country down
further and further.
But then
certain events occurred
that would prove fatal.
The Berlin Wall fell.
Mobutu was a good reader,
so he knew that
the Cold War was over.
The geopolitical
situation was changing,
Mobutu was still hesitant.
It wasn't in Congo,
but just a few weeks later,
Ceausescu was executed,
one of his close allies.
A few months earlier,
he had been in Romania
to see how the Party
was run over there.
The footage of the
public execution
of Ceausescu and his wife
was shown on
Zairian television.
According to the Information
Minister at the time,
Mobutu then called him
on the phone and said,
"Who authorised this?"
It was quite the
drama for Mobutu.
The Minister's
analysis was that
he believed
Mobutu saw himself
in the same position
as Ceausescu.
He imagined himself
being killed
and his body being
dragged through the streets.
That he would be
killed and lynched.
For about 20 years,
Mobutu thought he was superhuman,
he thought he was eternal.
Around this time he started to
realise that he was just a man.
"CONGO IS ONE AND INDIVISIBLE",
JOSEPH MOBUTU.
Movement of the Revolution.
Thank you.
You're covered in dust.
There we go.
There's a lot of dust!
Every Zairian, from birth,
is a member of the MPR.
Much better. Thank you.
We are one big family
that unites all 24 million
Zairians.
And every child born
will grow up
and live their entire lives
as an activist for the MPR.
So it's compulsory?
I don't force them,
but the people of Zaire
want to live in unity.
I'm sure you can
see that too.
Mobutu had a vision
of a great Zaire,
a vision of a great country
and a great people.
After being put in power
by Belgium and the US,
Mobutu took
measures and created
the MPR, which became
the sole political party.
The state of Zaire
became Mobutu's property.
In the early years,
Congo was developing.
The Congolese
economy was thriving.
Due to his love of power,
his love for dancing
and propaganda everywhere,
he became drunk with glory.
He had won it all,
he controlled everything.
But then everything collapsed.
The economy was failing,
people were starving
and his main ally, the West,
was showing him
many yellow cards, saying,
"Be careful,
this isn't working."
Mobutu felt threatened
from all sides.
And to stay in power,
he sacrificed Congo.
MOBUTU'S GAME
EPISODE III
DESCENT INTO HELL
UNITED NATIONS,
NEW YORK
I left the Congo
in December 1973
and I was in exile
for 17 years and a half.
What happened was,
in one of my classes I was teaching,
we were discussing
concepts of groups.
What is a group, a class,
a caste, a clique and so on.
A student said,
"Mr Nzongola, you always
give us examples from
Senegal, Nigeria,
Kenya, Zimbabwe.
Tell us about Zaire.
We're in Zaire,
not in those countries,
what are
the examples of this?"
I said okay,
"I'll give you one. Clique.
This country
is run by a clique
led by Mobutu."
And I was recorded.
One of the students
had a tape recorder,
recording my lectures.
So he went and
he gave it to Security.
So I was called to go
to the security police.
And so they played
the thing.
"Did you say that?"
"Yeah, I said that."
I said, "What is wrong with that?
Isn't that the truth?"
They all looked
at me, shocked.
They think I'm a fool,
that I'm mentally ill
or something.
I said, "Well, isn't
that the truth?
Isn't Mobutu the head
of a clique in this country?"
They said, "You are insulting
the Head of State."
It went on for four hours.
They came in and they had
other information on me
they had put
together for years.
My nephews who worked for the
security police told me that,
"You are on the blacklist
so don't come back here".
This was a bloody dictatorship
where a person's life meant nothing.
You could be picked up
and your family would
never know where you were
or what has happened
to you. You're gone.
Why do we have to do
this interview in secret?
Well, because we no longer
have freedom of speech here.
If we were to do
this interview
in a public place
you would be deported
from the country,
while I would rot in prison,
or maybe I'd be beheaded.
And when you have
conversations in private,
can you speak freely?
No, we even
distrust our wives,
we don't dare share
our real thoughts with others.
Would a wife
turn in her husband?
Yes, that happens sometimes,
so we don't dare say
what we really think.
From the 1970s onwards,
Mobutu had become paranoid,
fearing a coup against him.
So he instilled fear
in the hearts of all Zairians,
of all Congolese.
I remember being with my father in
the village. To talk about Mobutu,
even when we were alone,
you felt like he was watching you.
Are you afraid,
Mr President?
Afraid of whom? Of what?
Fear of the future,
fear of jealous rivals perhaps?
When you have
people like mine,
nothing else matters.
And my conscience
is completely clear.
My conscience has
always been clear,
so I'm not going to be afraid
of anyone or anything.
The whole repression
began almost immediately
after Mobutu became
the head of the country.
First, in 1966, with the
hanging of those four politicians.
Then the killing
of Mulele in 1968.
The way that Mulele was killed
I mean, it was simply shocking.
They started cutting off
his body parts,
cutting this and this
and all that.
When the person
is still alive!
Then, of course, the bloody
murder of Congolese students
of the Lovanium
University in 1969.
Here were university students
who had grievances against
the Belgian professors,
they found them to be racist.
Also, the curriculum was
teaching about Europe,
and nothing about
Africa and about the Congo.
So, those students were protesting
on very understandable grounds,
there was nothing
against the regime.
In 1969, it was actually
a demand that had the support
of the government.
Then, at some point, we learned
that Mobutu had rejected
the original agreement.
That's why we went
on a peaceful march
to submit
the memorandum
in order to ask Mobutu
to reconsider this decision.
When we took the bus at 5am,
we were very
surprised to find
soldiers blocking our way.
There were no weapons
on display at that point.
They stopped us with
their bodies,
stopping the buses so that
we couldn't flood into the city.
So we got off our buses
and we were scattered.
At that point
Mobutu positioned soldiers
at strategic points
and it ended in bloodshed.
We still don't know
exactly how many died,
but it was at least 50 students.
Mobutu took all the bodies.
The dead were quickly taken away by
soldiers and no-one ever saw them.
They say they were buried
in the river. No one knows.
No one knows
where they were buried.
We have never
been able to find out.
We just don't know.
JOSETTE SHAJE TSHILUILA
EX-STUDEN
Six people, six students,
were sentenced to death.
Everywhere, in all sectors,
Mobutu was trying
to reduce the threat.
Everywhere!
Here, he also decided
to close the university.
He said: "For two years,
all of you will be in
the army to learn discipline."
There were abuses.
They handed the female
students over to the soldiers
who took advantage
and groped their breasts.
Mobutu came to see us
and made us march
in front of him.
He looked at us with contempt,
holding his cane. It was awful.
Meanwhile,
they brought the students back
and beat them
in front of him.
He looked at the scene
with indifference.
He wanted to break us,
psychologically.
It was the start
of the country's downfall.
Mobutu, thinking he
could do anything he wanted,
took so much for himself
that Congolese society
began falling apart.
In Congo,
the culture of cheating,
total corruption in society,
all of that was
introduced by Mobutu.
Apart from this lack of freedom,
if I say that here
there's a very small group
that's very rich
and the masses are very poor,
is that right?
Absolutely right.
Who taught us corruption?
I believe it was you.
Let me be frank.
What do you call corruption?
Before I came to power,
from 1960 to 1965,
people would come here with money
and say to our politicians,
"Do this, do that,"
or would go to military officers and
say, "Take this money and do this".
This system wasn't
invented in Zaire.
It was imported
to this country.
We are fighting against
this evil import.
There's a story that's interesting
in these declassified documents
from the CIA,
where Mobutu
says to the CIA,
"Well, I took this money
out of the army budget,
and I spent it on
all these things that
have nothing to do
with the military.
But they found out about it.
Some people might
charge me with something,
so I want you, the CIA, to give me
money to reimburse the budget."
So basically,
you have Mobutu
who is stealing money
from the military budget
and then the CIA is bribing
him to cover it up.
So you have two forms of bribery
going on, reinforcing each other.
That's how the
government worked,
that's how Mobutu worked.
So, through the CIA,
and I don't want
to exempt the Belgians,
who were doing some
of the same things,
but from the
moment of independence,
Mobutu was always
corrupt as can be.
It was kind of
disguised at first,
but then, in the early 70s,
he nationalised companies,
he called it "Zairianisation",
then it came out that he was
really this corrupt guy.
My fellow citizens
and dear activists,
today must be, for us,
a turning point
in our history.
Therefore, I announce
certain major decisions
I have made
to bring an end to
exploitation in our country.
During colonial times,
with the apartheid system,
businesses and plantations
were always in foreign hands.
They were owned by the Portuguese,
Spanish, Belgians, French or Greeks.
Even after independence in 1960,
this system continued to exist.
But Mobutu
couldn't understand why
there were
no Congolese merchants,
why Westerners
owned everything.
Mobutu came up with
his solution: "Zairianisation".
This meant that
all the Greeks and the other
foreigners had to leave
and that the Congolese
people would become
the owners of these farms.
So they told
European merchants,
Imagine I've just turned up
in your office or your shop.
"This business has
been assigned to me.
Go ask the government about it.
Give me the keys."
They snatched people's keys.
"Get out!"
A number of Greeks,
Portuguese and Belgians
killed themselves.
These people had come over
with their great-grandparents
and only owned
a few shops
or a few plantations.
It was chaos.
It was a redistribution
of wealth.
We went after
their private capital,
seizing their
money and assets.
But this wasn't given to the
average Congolese citizen,
it went to Mobutu's friends
who already had great power.
Who took over these
companies? It was Ministers,
Mobutu's family
and friends of theirs.
They shared this
wealth among friends.
It was Mobutu's entourage at
the time who benefitted from this.
"I'll take this plantation, but
I know nothing about their finances,
the volume of their production,
or anything about them."
And of course, they took pleasure
in getting rich over the money
that they found
in those corporations
and selling whatever
they had to sell.
Sometimes buildings,
sometimes equipment.
Then the
corporations disappeared,
there was no more business.
That really created
a terrible crisis
for the Congolese economy.
This is how
Mobutu's system worked.
The Mobutists
lived in opulence,
they stole money
all the time.
They took money
from their budgets
and spend it on themselves,
while people are suffering,
people are not being fed correctly.
Mobutu, he told the people
publicly, in a stadium,
that if you have
to steal, steal.
But steal little by little
and invest in your country.
This was a president of a country
giving advice to his people.
So it was institutionalised
more than institutionalised, it was
condoned by the Head of State.
BEWARE OF SCAMMERS!!!
I'm a Mobutist
because there were good things
done during Mobutu's time
that should be
continued today.
The power we have now
comes from Mobutu, right?
We used to have
take ferries to cross the river,
then Mobutu
built us a bridge.
Wasn't it Mobutu
who did this?
There are certain
things Mobutu did
But I focus on progress,
compared to stagnation
and chronic poverty.
He came in
and changed things.
I admired that.
I like it when people use force
in the name of progress.
It's like with colonisation.
"Oh, Leopold II
cut off people's hands."
But Leopold II's
children saved lives thanks to
the hospitals they built.
So, I'm not someone
who only focuses
on the hand-cutting
side of things. No.
Because I know what
it's like to govern
and I sometimes used
the forceful approach too.
I'm someone who says,
"I don't believe in democracy."
We need strong leadership
to be able to move forward,
because democracy won't work
when you have poverty.
A certain level of wealth
is needed for democracy to work.
If there's corruption,
this is because
we have poverty too.
I think poor people
are easily corrupted.
When you come to them
offering them something,
they can be corrupted.
Poor people sell themselves.
They don't have the pride to say,
"You can't buy me."
They're not like that.
They're poor people.
If I may, Mr Engulu,
some people
say that Mr Engulu
lives in a big
house with a pool.
And that he got rich
during Mobutu's era.
You know,
we're all born different.
We're born different.
Some people are born smart
and others aren't.
As for me,
I was born intelligent.
Even at school,
I was often top of the class.
With my money,
I try to imitate white people,
I want to be
like white people.
When I build something,
I build it with my intelligence.
I say, "I, Engulu,
can do this too."
And when I have money,
I invest it in such things, I say,
"My swimming pool
will be this big."
I invested in the pool,
just like I invested
in my plantations
back home.
That's just how I am.
Because I was trained
by white people,
so I imitate them now.
All the structures
of Mobutu's system,
the 30-40 of his closest supporters,
all of them took advantage
Our country is not
the first or last
to face temporary difficulties
with its economy
and finances.
Zaire is aware of
its difficulties
and has taken the initiative
to meet with its creditors
and have an open discussion
to agree on
a new payment schedule.
We are not beggars,
because we
acknowledge our debts.
Where did Congo's
debt come from?
A prime example
of Congo's debt
is Inga dam.
Inga dam came
into existence
because, to make
Western banks profitable,
Western bankers came
and said to Mobutu,
"Here's some money,
build Inga."
But Inga met
no economic need.
It wasn't profitable either.
Furthermore, we were also
testing a new high-voltage line,
a 1,700 km DC line,
that cost more
than the dam itself!
Through this case, Mobutu
clearly showed that
he was serving
Western interests
more than
Congolese interests.
I arranged the financing
for that power line.
Mobutu wanted to send electricity
to the Katanga province.
Katanga was never
friendly to Mobutu.
So he said,
"Now they will be dependent
on me for electricity."
Of course, it was
ridiculous because
there was no power going to any city
in between Inga and Katanga.
It was just a power line
just to Katanga
so that Mobutu could say,
"I control their power."
In 1974, there was this very big
boxing match held in Kinshasa,
Muhammad Ali
versus George Foreman,
as a way of advertising
to the West
how great Mobutu was
and he was putting on
this big, international fight.
This was done,
partly, to distract
the people Kinshasa
from their poverty.
Things were
getting very tense.
The way the fight
was financed
was they created
a corporation in Switzerland.
$10.85 million was put
into this corporation
which was controlled
by President Mobutu.
It came from the budget
of the Congo government.
And then all the money from
the fight goes to Mobutu,
all 42.5% of the
gross revenues.
Many tens of
millions of dollars.
How does that man
care about his people?
At a time when the economy
had completely broken down,
he tried other schemes,
like the satellite
he wanted to put in orbit
with the help of the
Germans in 1976 or 1977.
To promote his country,
he wanted to put a
satellite in space
so that people
could see Zaire.
That was another failure,
millions were wasted
on this project.
It was almost
a perfect metaphor.
The Mobutu regime
was sinking,
it was falling apart.
The economy was failing.
The Congolese people
was living in poverty
and when Zairian public
opinion denounced him,
when the people decided
they wanted him gone,
revolt broke out.
The Shaba War
was a patriotic act
led by Congolese soldiers,
"Zairian" soldiers at the time,
who were aligned with the USSR
and who fled to Angola.
They said:
"Mobutu in power? No, no, no."
They went to Angola
as they feared being executed
by Mobutu.
They said, "Let's wait,
when the time is right,
we'll go home.
When the time came
they told their brothers,
"Move into Katanga."
And Mobutu
couldn't believe it.
SHABA / KATANGA 1977-1978
Kolwezi, southern Shaba.
This is Zaire's
economic heartland.
Whoever controls Kolwezi controls
copper and cobalt production
and decides the fate
of the Zairian nation.
We're dealing
with bandits here.
They are gangsters equipped
by the Soviet Union,
who have been trained
and are led by Cubans.
Mobutu,
after killing all of the
progressive leaders in 1964,
didn't want to see any new
revolutionary movements emerge,
or old ones resurface.
So the best way for him
to go about things
was repression, was to
eliminate them one by one.
If you were suspected
of being a communist
you would disappear.
So I was in danger
and I fled Zaire
to join movements that would
continue the fight against Mobutu.
Castro had sent
Cubans to Angola.
And this was a problem
because the US government
didn't want to send troops
to fight in Africa.
That was a long-standing policy.
But, also, we didn't want
a Cold War in Africa.
So we decided to do
what we could to help.
What we did is we sent our
airplanes to help Mobutu.
These were tremendous
airplanes: the C-10!
This was the biggest airplane
that the US had,
and I think it still is.
They could put tanks in there
and all sorts of things.
When we arrived in Kolwezi,
the Zairian army had already
ditched their uniforms.
They weren't fighting.
"We're not soldiers,"
they said. They were scared.
The rebels are using
guerrilla tactics.
The Zairian army
has been overwhelmed.
Mobutu never
developed a strong army.
His army was an army
with corrupt generals.
The soldiers were not
very well paid,
this is why they would
simply revert to looting,
to harassing the population
and grabbing things from the people.
They would help themselves.
That's why these people
coming in from Angola
could take the city
of Kolwezi so easily.
This time,
Mobutu was in real trouble.
General, there are 4,000
Europeans being held hostage.
Will you be able
to get them out of there?
I believe I already told you we're
implementing all possible measures.
When he saw that,
in less than a day,
Kolwezi had nearly fallen,
he was terrified.
He had to come up
with a way of convincing
the West to come
and help him.
It's unbelievable,
there are no words
to describe the horror
of the massacres here in Kolwezi.
Along the city's
wide avenues,
in the European districts,
dozens of bodies
line the streets.
Entire families were slaughtered
by crazed soldiers.
What he did
I mean, it's cynical!
He did kill the Europeans,
pretending that they
were killed by the rebels,
and therefore justified
bringing in external powers
to help save his regime.
I'm a father myself.
When I saw
with my own eyes
the headless body
of a 2-year-old girl
Because we could see
How do you think I felt?
We never killed civilians.
Our problem was
with the military.
This theory
is still circulating today,
because, according
to some sources,
the areas where
the hostages were killed
wasn't in rebel territory.
That area was still being
held by Mobutu's soldiers.
So if Mobutu did this,
he was taking a huge risk,
but I guess it paid off.
So France under
Giscard d'Estaing
decided to intervene
in Kolwezi.
When the French withdrew,
Belgium rushed in to ensure
that the territory wasn't lost.
America provided
logistical support.
Always the famous trio:
the US, France and Belgium.
Once again, Mobutu
was saved by the West,
but he started
to be quite clearly criticised
from some in the West.
And, to keep the
West as an ally,
Mobutu had to pay up.
But at that time
money couldn't flow out easily,
due to restrictions imposed
by the IMF and the World Bank.
Meanwhile the Congolese people,
the Zairian people,
were living in total poverty
and destitution.
But for some, money was
still flowing freely.
Mobutu contributed
around 50 million
to the election campaign
of Ronald Reagan.
50 million? Where did
this money come from?
Wealth that left the country
came from our mines:
copper, cobalt, zinc.
From Kolwezi.
The mines had been saved.
However,
this flood of money wasn't
meant for the Congolese people.
I'll say to anyone that will listen
that the Central Bank of Congo
was used by Mobutu
as his own private fund.
But as the negative image
surrounding Mobutu started
to become overwhelming,
both in the West
and in Congo,
what could he do
to defuse the situation?
And then Mobutu showed how
much of a political player he was.
He took a gamble.
Being cunning,
he organised
parliamentary elections.
He pretended to establish
democracy in the country,
to hand over
power to others.
But this was just a decoy.
These MPs wouldn't
have any real power.
It was just for show.
He said, "Gentlemen, nothing will
ever be the same from now on."
But when he said
nothing would be the same,
it actually got worse.
I founded the PRM,
the Popular
Revolutionary Movement.
Therefore, no one
is better suited than me
to grasp the true meaning
of its doctrine,
which is that of Mobutism,
meaning my ideas,
teachings and actions.
And while I'm alive,
having a two-party or
a multi-party system in Zaire?
No way.
No, no, no.
Absolutely not.
To build our ever
more beautiful country
Around a majestic river
Around a river
In the early 80s,
13 members of parliament
sent a letter to Mobutu,
of 52 pages,
telling him they cannot live
to the dictate of one man.
It is time to go back
to a multi-party system.
THIS JOKE HAS
GONE ON FOR TOO LONG
And to show their commitment
to this change,
they started
wearing suits with ties,
which were not allowed
in the Congo at that time.
With the open letter,
we were the first politicians
to directly confront Mobutu.
So wherever we went,
all of us 13 MPs
was treated like a god.
This document made waves.
Mobutu was in big trouble.
But they were
not revolutionaries,
they were
Mobutu's former friends,
they helped him to create
the single-party system.
These people had since been
removed from the circles of power.
Trust me, I don't need
bitter people around me.
I just need the
27 million citizens
that I lead.
If a few people feel bitter
about certain things,
let these dogs bark,
our caravan must keep moving.
Our caravan is made up
of 27 million people.
In the 1980s,
when I was working for Congress,
we arranged a meeting at our hotel,
with them in Kinshasa.
They all had ties and suits and so
forth, the western costume,
instead of the Zairian
Mao-suit, type thing.
After the meeting,
one of the
congressmen realises
he's forgotten his wallet
or something.
So he comes
back to the hotel.
As he comes back
to the hotel,
he saw the same people we had met
with, in their nice, Western suits,
being beaten, kicked,
hit with
metal-studded belts, whipped,
right in front of the hotel!
And their cars were
all being smashed.
One day,
I was heading home
with my wife and children
and the governor came
with his entire staff
to teach me
a lesson in public.
I hope you're
recording this, sir.
I sure hope so. Good.
So they arrived and everyone,
the whole town
had to come and watch.
"Look, everyone,
this unrepentant man
has dared
to contradict Mobutu!"
They slapped me.
I passed out.
I didn't know they'd
left me naked afterwards.
They left me naked,
stark naked, in front
of my wife and kids!
The whole town were
made to watch.
We went to the
security office
where other agents
were waiting for me.
For more torture sessions.
In front of my wife and
It was horrific!
Banned from civil
and political rights
for five years.
Mr Ngalula, Mr Tshisekedi,
Mr Makanda, Mr Kapita and Mr Kiunga.
Mobutu felt threatened
from all sides.
Paranoia started
to consume him.
He didn't trust
anyone anymore.
Not even the Westerners
that he continued to pay,
as they were speaking
ill of him at that time.
He felt unsafe,
so Mobutu tried
to protect himself.
The Zairian people have stopped
applauding our policeman
and that's a shame.
But don't worry,
a major reform is underway
regarding our police forces.
We will soon have
an intelligence service
as they have in all
organised countries.
A service able
to keep us informed
about all events,
both international and domestic.
The Security Service had played
a key role since the 1970s,
but from then on,
the real power
was held by
the Security Service.
Everyone was
watching everyone else
and that's how he
controlled all of us.
When I became
the head of Security
I was close to Mobutu,
he called me every day.
Like Israel,
Mobutu had a long reach.
ANDRE-ALAIN ATUNDU,
ZAIRIAN SECURITY
We had regular reports
on events in the Middle East,
whilst we reported
to Israeli services
about events in our region.
We exchanged
information with them.
We were operating
on the highest level.
Mobutu wielded
enormous power
because of the information
he had about events
taking place
across the globe.
If you were an opponent of Mobutu,
where could you flee to?
In African countries,
they would catch you.
In the West they would
catch you too.
Mobutu was friends
with the Belgians, with the West,
the French, British
and other powers.
Where could you run to?
Murderer! Mobutu!
Murderer! Mobutu!
How many opponents came
to Belgium and were
mistreated there?
How many?
Mobutu! Murderer!
Mobutu! Murderer!
Yesterday or the day before,
an opponent who is in Belgium now,
said, "We expected a lot
from the president, but now
he's strengthening his power
through the means of force."
And all day long
on Belgian TV you talk about,
"People should take
action against Mobutu."
Take action? How?
You're thousands
of miles away.
Political prisoners were put
in airplanes or helicopters,
simply to open the thing
and let the people
drop into the ocean
or into big lakes to die.
Because Mobutu
didn't want them.
That's what being
a leader means.
When your power
is challenged,
when your authority
is threatened,
you must
neutralise such threats
one way or another,
even if that means sending
someone to their death.
You must defend your country
by any means possible.
If, to defend my country,
I must kill you,
then I have no choice.
An intelligence agent
is not a dangerous man.
He's someone who helps
to protect society
and who takes risks
on behalf of the people.
He's dangerous for enemies
of the Republic, yes.
I'm dangerous
for enemies of our Republic,
but not to the people
of my country.
By that time,
when I started to work for Congress,
and one of my issues
working for Congress was Zaire,
it was clear that
the people in the country
didn't like Mobutu.
That, of course, only makes
you more repressive.
That makes you even more
living in your own world,
more detached from reality.
Increasingly, Mobutu revealed
another side of his personality.
According to those
who knew him,
he was drawn to fetishes,
to witchcraft and Nganga.
They say that Mobutu
couldn't sleep at night
because he was
afraid of demons.
Mobutu went to France
to visit Mr Mitterrand,
France's socialist leader
at that time.
At the same time,
in Angola,
our neighbour,
there were 50,000 Cubans.
He called upon all the great
sorcerers of the world,
including Chinese ones
who charged him
two million dollars,
to cast a spell
on Mitterrand.
They stomped around
with Mitterrand's photo.
How to cast a spell on him,
how to control him?
They took a photo of him
and chanted and stuff.
Apparently, it worked!
Our goal?
Unity in diversity.
Our goal?
Unity in diversity.
Long live our
founding president!
Long live our
founding president!
He sought ways to stay
on top of everyone else.
After being a general,
he was given various titles:
"inspired guide",
"helmsman", etc.
But that wasn't enough
for him anymore.
His latest idea
was "marshal".
Then elections
were organised.
It was the same as
in the 1970 elections,
Mobutu was
the only candidate.
Marshal of Zaire,
your insight and wisdom
descended from heaven
like divine knowledge,
spontaneously.
His blood is
greater than truth,
our magnificent strategist
KINSHASA VOTES
100% FOR MOBUTU
That same day, at 3 or 4pm,
it was announced across Zaire
that Mobutu had won
99.9% of the votes.
Thank you!
In some regions,
in some parts of
our country,
people were singing
and dancing and said,
"We'll vote for you, 500%."
Others said, "1000%."
Mobutu was living
in another world.
He no longer
knew where he was.
Fear was taking over him.
He thought a coup could
happen in Kinshasa.
So he moved to Gbadolite,
his home region,
1,000 kilometres from
Kinshasa, out in the bush.
He had a grand palace
built there.
Mobutu lived in
excessive luxury.
He had champagne
for breakfast.
Everything had
to be luxurious.
He wanted to build
Congo's version of Versailles.
He had a bit of a complex
from having been colonised.
He desperately wanted
to live like a European,
like a white man,
doing even worse things to us
than the Europeans did.
He'd throw birthday parties
and get cakes from where?
From Europe. He'd charter
a plane just for a cake.
On top of that
he felt compelled
to buy castles in Europe
He went to Switzerland
and Cap-Martin.
All the money he stole here
he invested in
European castles.
And when he wanted lamb
it had to be flown
in from Argentina.
It was really excessive.
And all of this was
done with public money,
hundreds of millions
of dollars were spent
on the whims
of an insecure man.
His Excellency,
Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko.
1989, United Nations, New York
On 4 October 1973,
16 years ago today,
I addressed
the General Assembly
of the United Nations
for the first time.
Since then, many situations
all across the globe
have changed dramatically.
Mobutu is a murderer!
Long live Patrice Lumumba
and the Congolese people!
At the moment
Mobutu is a murderer!
Long live the spirit of Patrice
Lumumba and the Congolese people!
Mobutu is a murderer!
Long live Patrice Lumumba
and the spirit of the
Congolese people!
Mobutu is a murderer!
As I take the floor
for the second time
at this podium
US policymakers,
they kind of knew this guy
has basically failed.
The US continued to support Mobutu
when everybody kind of knew
there wasn't any real Communist
threat to Congo anymore.
But they had convinced
themselves, by that time,
that Mobutu was all
that held it together.
They had become so engaged
with the notion of Mobutu
they couldn't imagine
the country without him.
It was a failure
of imagination.
We're very, very pleased
to have you with us today.
Thank you, sir.
For them, it was like:
without Mobutu,
it's the Heart of Darkness.
It's Conrad's novel.
It's descending into
God-knows-what.
But the more important reason
for the continuing support
was: he's our friend.
He was the chosen leader
by the United States.
So the commitment to him
was a commitment to ourselves.
It was: are we going
to renounce not only a friend,
who has helped us
in the past,
but also someone
that we ourselves put in?
That was there
in their minds.
And I think that
helped keep them on board
as he drove the country down
further and further.
But then
certain events occurred
that would prove fatal.
The Berlin Wall fell.
Mobutu was a good reader,
so he knew that
the Cold War was over.
The geopolitical
situation was changing,
Mobutu was still hesitant.
It wasn't in Congo,
but just a few weeks later,
Ceausescu was executed,
one of his close allies.
A few months earlier,
he had been in Romania
to see how the Party
was run over there.
The footage of the
public execution
of Ceausescu and his wife
was shown on
Zairian television.
According to the Information
Minister at the time,
Mobutu then called him
on the phone and said,
"Who authorised this?"
It was quite the
drama for Mobutu.
The Minister's
analysis was that
he believed
Mobutu saw himself
in the same position
as Ceausescu.
He imagined himself
being killed
and his body being
dragged through the streets.
That he would be
killed and lynched.
For about 20 years,
Mobutu thought he was superhuman,
he thought he was eternal.
Around this time he started to
realise that he was just a man.
"CONGO IS ONE AND INDIVISIBLE",
JOSEPH MOBUTU.