Mobutu's Game (2025) s01e04 Episode Script
After me comes the flood
In Congo,
given the country's strategic
position and its resources,
power isn't won, it's handed
over to the next in line.
The West put Mobutu
in power as a guardian
to monitor
Communism in Africa.
The Cold War created Mobutu.
For years, he was
America's lapdog.
And during that time,
the West shared Congo's wealth.
But then the Berlin
Wall fell in 1989
and Communism was no longer
the West's main enemy.
Mobutu then
realised that his power
was hanging by a thread.
And during this period
Mobutu's illness
became much worse.
Cancer severely
weakened him.
But nothing would stop him.
Mobutu had promised that
he would never be
a former Head of State.
But Mobutu was
driven from power,
it was a fall from grace.
MOBUTU'S GAME
CHAPTER IV: AFTER ME, THE FLOOD
After the fall
of the Berlin Wall,
the West made him realise
that he was finished.
But the West was always
very polite with him,
because Mobutu
refused to accept
that he had to step down.
But what changed his mind
was the death of Romania's
President Ceausescu.
Seeing how
the footage of the execution
had been broadcast worldwide,
how he and his wife
Elena were killed,
it scared Mobutu.
I think fear led Mobutu
to tell himself
that he had to make
a symbolic gesture,
that he had to give up
much of his power,
otherwise he knew that things
would start to get out of hand.
24 APRIL 1990
24 APRIL 1990
Dear fellow citizens,
given the major changes
shaking the world
in this late 20th century,
I have decided
to test political
pluralism in our country.
Thus I solemnly announce
to the Zairian people
the introduction
of a multi-party system
with the freedom
for each and every citizen
to join any political party
they choose.
And what about your
leader in all this?
I hereby announce that today
I'm leaving the Popular Movement
of the Revolution,
so that it can
choose a new leader
to lead the party.
I'm sure you can
understand my emotion.
Mobutu's speech on
24 April 1990
took everyone by surprise.
There were
no leaks beforehand.
The head of the
MPR administration said,
"What's this all about?"
He couldn't believe it.
The MPR was
no longer the single party.
Mobutu believed that
a multi-party system
would mean
his political death.
It was as if he knew
what would happen next.
And in the end,
what everyone remembers
is when he said,
"I'm sure you can
understand my emotion."
NDAGBIA MOBUTU,
MOBUTU'S DAUGHTER
It all makes sense now.
People analysed it
as if, personally,
it was like a personal
defeat for him,
but it wasn't.
For him, it was
all about the country,
it was about
what was coming.
- Everything that came next.
- Exactly.
Everything we experienced.
Freedom! Freedom!
- Freedom! Freedom!
- Down with dictatorship!
- Long live freedom!
- Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
That evening,
some of his advisers,
such as Mobutu's
Chief of Staff, Vunduawe,
said to him, "What have
you done? That was foolish.
Zaire is not Romania.
You can still stay in power.
You're not dead yet."
It was a clumsy
move when he decided
to leave the MPR.
That's what triggered
systematic opposition
against him.
The single party system
meant discipline back then.
But once he opened things
up to democracy,
he lost all of his authority.
And people took
advantage of this.
Mobutu,
with his leopard outfit,
hadn't changed,
but he didn't have the
same power as he used to.
A month later,
a major event occurred
that would have a major
impact on Mobutu's future,
it meant the end of Mobutu
on the international stage.
The old MPR structures
became targets for attacks.
JMPR GENERAL SECRETARIA
At the campus in Lubumbashi
students attacked the JMPR,
the youth wing of the PMR,
Mobutu's brothers,
people from Equateur province,
the Ngbandi,
who had terrorised other students
for years. But now they didn't have
the same status.
This was
a chance to hit back
and now it was their
turn to be afraid.
LUBUMBASHI CAMPUS
General Baramoto's sister,
a student,
was arrested, stripped naked,
she had her hair cut off
and was tortured.
Three students were arrested
from Mobutu's ethnic group.
It was the people's justice.
They put them in this hole
and sentenced them to death
by burning.
All students from Mobutu's
region were being targeted.
They had to flee the campus,
but they said,
"They drove us out,
we must scare them now.
We must go back to campus
and seek revenge."
And wild rumours spread
about how Mobutu
was going to send commandos
to attack the
campus in Lubumbashi.
However, in my opinion,
Mobutu played
no part in these events.
Let me start by saying
there was no massacre
at the campus
in Lubumbashi.
"That night,
there was a black out across
the entire campus in Lubumbashi.
Suddenly,
tall figures in sportswear
rushed towards the students.
The commando unit
was like animals.
Students were stabbed,
their throats and bellies slashed.
Some were thrown
out of windows.
"The unit operated coldly
and methodically."
This is an account
that I wrote at the time,
based on in-depth
interviews that I conducted
with students from
the campus in Lubumbashi.
All the Belgian newspapers
then picked up the story
and it was passed on by
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It was the butterfly effect,
but on an unprecedented scale.
But only one body was found.
C.BRAECKMAN
JOURNALIST IN AFRICA
I wasn't there myself,
but I think the authorities
did everything they could,
very quickly and
very professionally,
to remove the bodies,
to hide them,
to make them disappear.
We don't know,
it is a mystery.
It's one major mystery
in our history
in terms of anyone being killed,
we don't know.
We don't know.
But the good thing about it
is it contributed to Mobutu
losing support on
the international level.
The question is what role did
the security forces play
in these events?
That remains unclear.
This is why
we insist on sending
an international commission
to the campus.
My dear friend, between us,
I have nothing to hide.
Absolutely nothing to hide.
We could send
100, 150, 200 investigation
teams to the campus,
but we still wouldn't
learn anything.
But since this request
comes from Belgium,
do you think I will serve
Belgium's interests?
I'm not at their service,
so there won't be
any international investigation
in Lubumbashi, in Zaire,
since everyone knows that
Belgium is behind this request.
I'm not here
to serve their interests.
That's all I have to say.
During Mobutu's 30-year reign,
there were many
tragedies before this one
and no one made
a big deal of them.
But Belgium was looking for a good
reason to break away from Mobutu.
LONG LIVE
BELGIAN-ZAIRIAN SOLIDARITY
For many years there had been
a disagreement
between Belgium and Zaire.
It was the famous
colonial debt dispute
which dated back to the
time of independence.
Zaire had to keep repaying
its colonial debt
and Mobutu felt that this
debt wasn't legitimate.
He said, "Who is
in the other's debt here?"
And he was right.
Gold, uranium,
the diamonds of Antwerp
When you add up everything
Belgium took from Congo
from the 19th century
until the present day,
who is in the other's debt?
The answer is quite
clear for all to see.
And then he said,
"If Belgium continues
with this quarrel,
then I will reveal everything
that goes on behind the scenes
at the Palace of Laeken."
Long live the King and the Queen!
Long live the Founding President!
In the late 1980s
Zaire's press agency
started a smear campaign
against King Baudouin,
claiming that corruption
was rife in the royal palace.
Of course, this was
a reflection of the true situation
inside Mobutu's own palace.
I once attended a
dinner at Mobutu's.
We were seated
at the head table
between two beautiful
Congolese women.
And they looked
exactly alike.
I said to the person
next to me,
"Those ladies look so similar."
He said, "Of course,
they're twins.
He married one of them,
but we don't
know which one."
He kept switching
between them.
Eventually,
King Baudouin said,
"Stop, that's enough."
I was getting fed up
with Mobutu too,
because nothing had
actually changed in Congo
and they just continued
to take advantage.
So we thought it was
the right time to stop.
LONG LIVE THE
BELGIAN-ZAIRIAN FRIENDSHIP
Diplomatic relations
with Belgium were broken off.
Countries worldwide then followed
suit, cutting ties with Mobutu.
The West abandoned Mobutu.
They wouldn't
give him visas,
he couldn't get a visa
to go anywhere.
Especially in Western countries,
Mobutu vanished.
Mobutu lost his key ally,
the West.
The events in Lubumbashi
changed everything.
On the international level,
Mobutu remained isolated
from then on, right until the end.
J. OMASOMBO
POLITICAL EXPER
He became a pariah.
Western powers,
namely Belgium, America, etc.,
no longer needed an old-fashioned
dictator like Mobutu.
They wanted
so-called democrats
in suits and ties
who got along
well with the IMF
and with renowned
international economists.
A guy with his
leopard hat and cane
was fine in the
1970s and 1080s,
but by 1990,
when the Cold War ended,
they no longer needed
such an eccentric character.
So the Western powers,
and especially the Americans,
via the CIA,
decided that Mobutu's time
was up, that he had to go.
The US had supported Mobutu
all these years,
he was our son of a bich.
He was always considered reliable,
we could always count on him.
But he succumbed to corruption,
to ethnic favouritism,
he promoted himself
as a superhero.
So we was not
a good president of the Congo,
but he was the best
available at the time.
As long as we needed Kamina
Airfield for our work in Angola,
fighting the Cubans,
we didn't bother him.
Kamina, which is still
the only airport in Africa
that is NATO-standard.
But since the Cold War was over,
we didn't need Kamina anymore.
And then,
after the Cubans left Angola,
we just dropped him.
HERMAN COHEN,
US DIPLOMA
We said, "We're not
interested in you anymore."
Very cynical.
So we told the IMF and
the World Bank, you know, "Stop,
Why give him
money anymore?"
Since we had the most votes,
it meant that it was over.
"This time we've got him.
He won't get away
from us this time."
Do you really think so?
They wanted my head.
But this head of mine,
I'll always sell it
at a very high price.
ZAIRE TV
In Kinshasa,
it was still him,
Mobutu was
still in power
as the Head of State.
But in the streets,
the people were
against Mobutu.
DCF AND UNIKIN AGAINS
DICTATORSHIP, CORRUPTION
AND COUNTERFEITING
With democratisation,
in less than a month 400-500
political parties had emerged.
With the multi-party system,
people said of Mobutu,
"Now that MPR is no
longer the national party,
Mobutu is just like
any other citizen."
BUTWHY DON'
THEY RISE UP?
"Mobutu became the boxer who was
no longer throwing any punches.
Mobutu was the
one taking the hits."
Mr Mobutu never developed
a coherent philosophical thought
to support his
political system.
Along with the lies,
came material
and moral corruption,
nepotism and cronyism,
then came the many faces
of the Head of State himself:
founding president,
guide, helmsman,
father of the nation,
marshal,
and so on and so forth.
I ask the commission
to apologise
for such praise that
was borderline reconciliation.
It took things too far.
Freedom! Freedom!
The man who would become the face
of the Congolese opposition
was Étienne Tshisekedi.
The Tshisekedi name
became very well known.
The elder Tshisekedi
had been Mobutu's ally
and the MPR's
second-in-command.
He was involved
in Lumumba's death,
in the Whitsun hangings.
He was Mobutu's deputy.
But Tshisekedi Sr would
eventually oppose Mobutu's regime!
He must go.
If he's wise,
he would resign right away.
If not,
the people will chase him out
like with his friend Ceausescu.
Mobutu is dead!
Mobutu is dead!
TSHISEKEDI'S SUPPORTERS
Mobutu is dead!
Mobutu is dead!
Mobutu is buried!
Mobutu is buried!
Mobutu is buried!
Mobutu is buried!
Everything that was
said about him
He was a human being too,
he saw it as people being
ungrateful, because some people
wouldn't recognise
everything that he had
done for this country.
So he decided to move
to Gbadolite. He said to them,
"Okay, do whatever
you want over there."
He distanced himself, he moved
1,200 kilometres away from Kinshasa
and that's when everything
fell into chaos.
Do you enjoy coming here
and relaxing?
I moved away
from the capital,
I'm keeping my distance to let
the government do its work.
But all I hear is,
"Mobutu this, Mobutu that".
You can see my
face everywhere.
Now that it's growing,
in a few days' time
we'll see the first flowers.
He no longer wanted to put his
heart into working for the country.
That's the truth of it.
Of course, the people wanted him
to come back home to Kinshasa,
even the people
in his home region.
We need to find
the happiness we lost.
We've hit rock bottom.
Mr President, we beg you
with tears in our eyes,
take back your position,
return to power.
Look at your photo.
I show it to people
so they can see you.
We have tears in our eyes.
You must return to Kinshasa
and return to your post
so that we can eat.
We are suffering
terribly right now.
Take this man and
give him two gifts.
One for him and
one for the others.
Thank you.
Sometimes do you think,
"I'm fed up of all of this?"
I wouldn't say it out loud,
but, of course I do,
I'm only human after all.
Do you think Zaire
can cope without Mobutu?
Mobutu won't live forever.
They'll cope eventually,
but maybe not while
I'm still alive.
KINSHASA,
SEPTEMBER 1991
- At the end of the boulevard.
- They're really spraying bullets.
- They've shot plenty of bullets.
- They're shooting over here too.
While a weakened Mobutu
was living in Gbadolite,
the army was leading
a mutiny here in Kinshasa.
I saw it. At night,
I'd hide behind my curtains,
watching everything
from the second floor.
The presidential guard
was looting the
entire city of Kinshasa.
They came in military jeeps
and broke into stores.
They took what people were
really looking for at the time:
mattresses.
That tells you all
you need to know,
they were for their kids.
They also took electrical
appliances: freezers, fridges, etc.
Poverty was rife
in Congo at the time.
Poverty was everywhere,
even in the army.
And the people entered
these stores after them,
picking up the
bits and pieces,
fabrics or plastic buckets
that the soldiers had left behind.
It was chaos, it was impossible
to know who was doing what.
We lived like animals.
We stole rice and food to eat.
And clothes too.
The suffering in Kinshasa
had become too great.
The population were fed up
with Mobutu's politics,
they were tired of
not getting paid.
So they took to the streets
to destroy everything.
The problem was that
First, there was a wave
of soldiers who came in
and looted everything.
Then civilians
entered after them,
but meanwhile,
a second wave
of soldiers arrived
and was waiting for the civilians
to come out with their loot.
Once they came out,
they started shooting
and the shots rang out,
we'd drop everything
on the ground.
We ran away and
they stole our loot.
The strongest ones managed
to hold on to their things.
We stepped over bodies, but there
was no way of counting them.
I was in Kinshasa
during the looting.
At first,
we weren't sure
what was going on.
It could have been looting,
or maybe a coup.
The soldiers weren't
behaving normally.
Near the apartment
where I was staying,
we could hear
shooting everywhere
and my bodyguards said,
"We need to leave.
This building isn't secure
and we'll be safer
at the military camp."
I said, "The camp?
We'd have to cross the whole city
and they're shooting out there!"
And I wondered if I should
really go to a military camp
YANGO MOBUTU,
MOBUTU'S DAUGHTER
But they said to me, "Don't worry,
it's the safest place for you."
So, I thought,
"Hmm, okay, let's go."
So we left and crossed
the entire city.
It was
no joke,
but when we got
to the camp,
I saw that it was indeed
the safest place for me.
But my father
wasn't at the camp,
he was just outside the city.
So we then had
to cross the whole city again
to meet up with him.
But he was calm
and composed.
I didn't think he was
worried in any way.
On the contrary, seeing how
he was reassured me.
We have a
statement prepared.
Hello, Marshal.
Of course, President Mobutu,
like the political animal he was,
he took advantage
of this situation.
He benefitted from it
by simply allowing these
events to unfold.
He could have quickly
taken back control
using the military and all,
but he let
the situation unfold.
It was an indirect
way of punishing
those who weren't
on his side.
My fellow citizens,
the city of Kinshasa
is experiencing unrest
that is unprecedented
in the capital
since independence.
Many people believe
that the soldiers were involved
because they had a green light
from Mobutu.
I don't have any
evidence of that,
but that's what the
majority of people believe,
that it was designed
by Mobutu
to disrupt the
process of change.
And that really was terrible.
Meanwhile, it seemed
like every day
there was a party at Mobutu's
place in Gbadolite.
They threw big parties with
dignitaries from across the globe.
For these parties,
they, of course, needed
200 or 500 bottles
worth $2,000 each.
During the day,
Mobutu would stay inside,
you wouldn't see him outside,
but there were
beach bars.
Europeans, Congolese, Africans -
everyone wanted to see Mobutu.
To get their hands on a diamond
mine or another type of mine.
They all wanted to secure
a meeting with Mobutu.
At Mobutu's residence,
there was a bank,
the Kawele bank,
with a manager
and a room full of safes.
So in Gbadolite,
80% of people were coming to see
the chief, hoping to do business.
Some waited for a month,
coming in every morning.
But this was when
the ship was sinking.
The IMF and the World Bank
were fed up with Mobutu.
Nothing was coming in,
we weren't paying them.
Officially, the country
had no more money.
What does that mean?
That means that
The Bank of Zaire,
the national bank,
was no longer able,
had no more money
to order new banknotes.
So what he did was he found
some Lebanese people
who were producing
counterfeit dollars.
Mobutu joined this network
and started to produce fake Zaires.
And he got his share.
By the end of his regime,
he'd become a criminal, a thug.
He started to realise that
his end was drawing near,
but he didn't want
to think about it.
"Oh boy, it won't be easy.
After me, the flood!"
.He loved that phrase:
after me, the flood.
Did you see Saturday's
newspaper, the Libération?
It was incredibly
tough on you.
"Mobutu the counterfeiter,
the dictator"
"Who is stealing from the till
and all that, go on."
- What?
- Go on. Go on.
Go on, "counterfeiter".
"Who is stealing
from the till." Go on.
The decay of Mobutu's regime
had reached the peak.
But then in 1994,
eventually,
being the political
animal that he was,
he took advantage of an incident,
hoping to save the situation.
Rwanda's President Habyarimana
was assassinated.
His plane was shot
down and it crashed.
Habyarimana died instantly.
KIGALI, RWANDA,
APRIL 1994
That's when
the Rwandan genocide began.
Within a week,
over a million people,
mainly the Hutus,
fled Rwanda.
France would ask Mobutu
to accept refugees
in our country.
Mobutu had been isolated
so he seized the opportunity,
he saw this as an opening.
But the opening
wasn't very wide,
it would soon become a trap.
France desperately
needed Mobutu to agree
to take in
millions of refugees,
mainly Hutus,
some of whom may
have been involved
in the genocide.
Of course, not all of them
were involved.
But these refugees
had to be retrieved
from the hills of Zaire.
KIVU, CONGO/ZAIRE
The entire Kivu region,
on the border with Rwanda,
is truly the
most strategic region
in Africa, as it is
full of rare metals.
And in Mitterrand's mind,
if we supported
Habyarimana's regime
and if we maintain good
relations with Mobutu,
the region's wealth
might, eventually,
benefit France.
Mobutu, who had been
abandoned by the Americans
had a perfect
opportunity to say,
"Look, I'm here.
I'll help you."
From then on,
Mobutu was invited
to all Franco-African summits.
Mobutu was there,
next to the French President.
It was really
it was incredible,
it was a complete turnaround.
18TH CONFERENCE
OF HEADS OF STATE
OF FRANCE AND AFRICA.
And at that moment
I think everyone
around Mitterrand knew
that Mobutu had very
advanced-stage prostate cancer.
In France, they thought,
"Either the old man dies
and we'll find
another President."
But France wanted to reclaim
Zaire, that was quite clear.
Mobutu had lost
touch with reality.
I think that, at the end,
he was very sick,
he's not well at all.
Was Mobutu really aware
what it meant
to offer shelter
to all of those refugees
who were in the Kivu region?
Because this refugee issue
would accelerate Mobutu's fall
and the long-term
destabilisation of the region,
that continues to this day.
APRIL 1996, PARIS
He could have had
treatment for the issue,
but he didn't follow
his doctors' advice.
FELIX VUNDUAWE,
MOBUTU'S CHIEF OF STAFF
Let's say that he trusted,
that he turned to
other people for guidance,
not medical experts.
What other people
are you referring to?
Private advisors
who weren't necessarily doctors.
Prostate cancer can be cured
if it's caught early.
What you do,
is you take out the prostate.
It's surgery.
So they told him,
"Mr President, you must do this,
otherwise you could have big
troubles with your health."
And he refused.
Why did he refuse?
Because every day
Every day he had
to have a virgin.
He had to sleep
with a virgin every day.
And when you take out the prostate,
you can't do that anymore.
So he was willing to live
with a cancer of the prostate.
He told that to you? That every
day he wanted a virgin?
Oh no, it was
common knowledge,
it wasn't a secret.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND,
AUGUST 1996
There are questions about
Marshal Mobutu's health
as he continues to recover
in Switzerland
after surgery for
prostate cancer.
President Mobutu
isn't the first person
to have prostate surgery.
His condition is improving
day by day.
He was in such pain
we called the doctor.
He couldn't sleep.
But he wouldn't
show people his suffering.
He hid a lot from me,
he alone knew the truth.
He had read that Mitterrand
had recently died
of prostate cancer.
He knew he would die.
He just didn't know when.
When he had surgery in 1996,
he had to
undergo chemotherapy.
They told him they'd have
to push him in a wheelchair,
but he refused.
MOBUTU'S SON
I remember
the doctor saying,
"I don't know
how he can bear this pain,
we're using
quite high doses."
But at the same time,
I was aware that
any sensitive
information about this
could be used
by our opponents.
That was a concern.
You should know that,
regarding his health,
there was a leak.
In the medical team,
a doctor who had
taken Mobutu's blood
gave it to the CIA.
So they had Mobutu's blood
and they could analyse it.
So they knew
what disease he had
and could predict
what would happen to him.
OCTOBER 1996,
KIGALI, RWANDA
I used to go to Rwanda
a lot back then.
I was in touch with the head
of military operations,
General Kagame,
a Tutsi who would eventually
become the region's strongman.
And I clearly
remember doing
an interview with Kagame
where he explained that
these masses of refugees
in the border region
were people
who had committed genocide
and who were preparing
to attack Rwanda.
He said, "If the United Nations
and our neighbour, Zaire,
don't do something
to resolve this issue,
I assure you,
we'll handle it ourselves.
I'm concerned about
their presence in Zaire.
If you slap me in the face,
before I hit back,
I may not hit in the face,
I may hit somewhere else.
So I have to think and
see where I'm going to hit.
- But you will hit?
- There's no question about it.
I must admit
I was sceptical.
I couldn't imagine a country that
was still teetering from genocide
threatening Mobutu's
mighty Zaire.
But what I didn't know was
just how weak Mobutu's
Zaire had become.
And I had no idea
how much Kagame,
his army and the Rwandan Patriotic
Front were backed by America.
Kagame gave the order
to send troops
into the refugee camps.
They caught up
with the genocidal people
and killed them all.
But Kagame,
from there he started planning
to fight and get rid of Mobutu,
because he wanted
to control the wealth,
to control
the wealth of the Congo.
We never encouraged them
to invade the Congo,
but we had no way
of stopping them.
And, of course,
we were happy to see
Mobutu go at this point.
PATIENT MOBUTU,
AGE 68. WEIGHT 32KG.
PROSTATE CANCER.
NATIONALITY: FRENCH.
To take all the power
against Mobutu,
Rwanda had decided to
look for a Congolese leader
to gain support from
the Congolese people.
Kabila won out. Why?
Because he was a yes man.
The objective of the Alliance
ALLIANCE FOR THE
LIBERATION OF CONGO-ZAIRE
is to overthrow
the Mobutu government.
The Rwandans fell
in love with him.
They said,
"This is the guy we want",
because he agrees with us.
He had no principles.
All these people
are simply opportunists
who want power.
They don't care
where it comes from.
He had no army
to fight for the Congo.
Kabila had the kadogos,
the little soldiers.
They had nothing,
they were just intimidating,
he had kids holding
a big rifle
which they probably
couldn't even shoot.
So he didn't have anybody.
He depended on the Rwandan
and Ugandan armies.
They wanted their person
in power in the Congo.
He was just
a puppet, really,
Kabila was just nothing,
he had nothing to say.
The US position is clear.
But in the US at the time,
we thought Kabila might be
a good substitute for Mobutu.
So we provided
intelligence to Kabila
moving towards getting rid
of Mobutu in Kinshasa.
He knew it was
all made-up,
that they wanted
a story of a rebellion,
but this was all
managed from overseas.
It was all just
a big fairy tale.
So we had
to fight against that.
He spent a long time
recovering near Nice
where he had a large castle,
a big house,
but then he had
to return to Kinshasa
because the AFDL
was advancing
and the situation
was getting worse.
The people were told
to come into the streets
and a lot of
money was spent
on signs to
welcome Mobutu.
MARSHAL MOBUTU
FOR THE SURVIVAL OF THE NATION!
The plane was
on the tarmac,
but Mobutu didn't
want to get off,
he was having
a meltdown on the plane.
He was exhausted from the
chemotherapy and everything.
They had to wait
for over an hour
and when Mobutu
eventually emerged,
the people gazed upon a man
whose cheeks had sunken in.
The enemies of our people
choose the moment
when I'm struck by illness
to stab me in the back.
As they know what
our territorial integrity,
national unity
and the dignity of great
Zaire mean to me.
I've devoted my life
In 1997,
I was named ambassador
to the UN
by President Clinton.
My first assignment
was to go to Zaire
and try to convince
President Mobutu
BILL RICHARDSON
US DIPLOMA
to leave office.
This Congo situation
was getting out of control,
there were a lot of killings.
What happens
with some leaders
is they have advisors that
don't tell them the truth.
I think he felt
his army could win.
I said, "Mr. President, no."
I was direct. I said,
"Mr. President, we want
you to leave with dignity,
to leave now.
Your time is up.
This happens to a
lot of leaders.
But Kabila is about
to come into Kinshasa
and there will be
blood and death.
Your military is defecting.
We want you to be safe.
You're sick, you're not well.
We'll take your family.
The time is now.
President Mandela will
do the mediating."
That was my message.
POINTE-NOIRE,
CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE
Kabila was afraid to negotiate
on land, for his safety.
The negotiations were
held on a boat.
I don't know what people had been
saying to him, but he was scared.
They had convinced Kabila
that Mobutu was
some sort of sorcerer
and that,
if you negotiated with him,
if you looked him
straight in the eyes,
he could bewitch you.
So at the negotiations Kabila
never looked Mobutu
in the eyes.
President Mobutu
understands that
the responsibility
lies primarily on him
for facilitating a solution.
The talks were meant to
be about Mobutu's future.
How to manage this situation?
How would he step down?
But Kabila was so arrogant
that he refused to
negotiate anything in the end.
He believed that Mobutu simply had
to sign and offer his resignation.
They didn't care one bit
about Mobutu's future.
So Mobutu said,
"Under these conditions,
I have nothing to
negotiate or sign."
Of course, he was aware
that it was over for him,
as he no longer had
the support of his army.
He knew all was lost.
We knew the
rebels were already
quite close to Kinshasa.
So, that's when
he realised
he had to leave,
that he had to flee Kinshasa
and go to Gbadolite.
Mobutu fled Kinshasa
like some sort of thief.
He expected things
to explode in Kinshasa.
And then,
every soldier scattered and
it was every man for himself.
Who are we fighting
for? For Mobutu?
Who does nothing for us
and who took all the money?
17 MAY 1997,
KINSHASA
The AFDL arrived.
There was no fighting
and we were all
in the streets.
We cheered them
on, me included.
When a column passed by,
we applauded.
We celebrated.
The AFDL's arrival
was like a celebration.
It wasn't
a conflict situation.
These young people
with their swollen feet
entering the city,
with their shells
and cannons.
And the people were celebrating
Mobutu's fall with palm branches.
Portraits were removed from the
walls of offices and ministries.
"Mobutu, Mobutu,
Mobutu is gone."
It felt like a dream.
Kinshasa had fallen,
Mobutu had fled to Gbadolite.
It wasn't the AFDL,
it wasn't the newcomers
who went to hunt
Mobutu in Gbadolite.
No, it was his own soldiers,
those from his
presidential guard,
his own ethnic group,
his brothers.
He wanted to stay
there and die there.
The kids kept trying
to convince him,
"We have to go, Dad.
Let's go."
He left eventually,
reluctantly.
For the President's comfort,
they loaded the car
onto the military plane.
We were lucky that
it was a military plane,
or we would have crashed
down in Gbadolite.
They shot at the plane
and it was riddled with holes.
The great Mobutu was gone.
In the end,
he was a lonely man,
fleeing with his
wife and children.
Like in his early days,
he was alone again.
A few months later,
far from his homeland,
he died.
RABAT, MOROCCO
"Forgive me."
Those were his last words.
Why did he ask for forgiveness?
Only he knows.
I asked the Lord for forgiveness
for what we did to him,
on behalf of all
Zairians, including myself,
because he was the father
of our nation.
We thought we'd hit
rock bottom under Mobutu
and that his replacement
could only make things better.
KABILA BECOMES
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
But when Laurent-Désiré Kabila
came over from Rwanda,
that was when the Congolese
truly lost their country.
Mr. Laurent-Désiré Kabila
takes on the duties of the
role of Head of State
As soon as he was in power,
the Rwandans, in effect,
took over Kinshasa.
They took all
the best apartments,
they took all the vehicles
and that sort of thing.
They were really running
the Congo government.
Now we have an army that
is infiltrated by Rwandans.
Today,
Rwanda has the world's largest
market of coltan in the world today.
They don't produce
a single kilo of coltan.
All that comes
from the Congo,
which they sell
to the outside world.
America and Canada,
Western Europe, Russia
They all benefit from these
resources from the Congo.
And we're left
with a very rich country,
but with nothing
to show for it.
People are still suffering,
people are still very, very poor.
SEPTEMBER 2022,
RABAT,
THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY
OF MOBUTU'S DEATH
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, on earth
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day
our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who
trespass against us.
And lead us
not into temptation
Three presidents have
succeeded him since he left.
They all copied
Mobutu at first.
They all wanted all
the power in their hands,
"I am the leader,
I am this country."
But they've all fallen
to the same fate as he did.
And with Mobutu,
corruption spread, seeping
into every level of society.
Every level.
Mobutu seems to be saying
to us, "I'm still here."
We're still living under Mobutism,
but without Mobutu.
given the country's strategic
position and its resources,
power isn't won, it's handed
over to the next in line.
The West put Mobutu
in power as a guardian
to monitor
Communism in Africa.
The Cold War created Mobutu.
For years, he was
America's lapdog.
And during that time,
the West shared Congo's wealth.
But then the Berlin
Wall fell in 1989
and Communism was no longer
the West's main enemy.
Mobutu then
realised that his power
was hanging by a thread.
And during this period
Mobutu's illness
became much worse.
Cancer severely
weakened him.
But nothing would stop him.
Mobutu had promised that
he would never be
a former Head of State.
But Mobutu was
driven from power,
it was a fall from grace.
MOBUTU'S GAME
CHAPTER IV: AFTER ME, THE FLOOD
After the fall
of the Berlin Wall,
the West made him realise
that he was finished.
But the West was always
very polite with him,
because Mobutu
refused to accept
that he had to step down.
But what changed his mind
was the death of Romania's
President Ceausescu.
Seeing how
the footage of the execution
had been broadcast worldwide,
how he and his wife
Elena were killed,
it scared Mobutu.
I think fear led Mobutu
to tell himself
that he had to make
a symbolic gesture,
that he had to give up
much of his power,
otherwise he knew that things
would start to get out of hand.
24 APRIL 1990
24 APRIL 1990
Dear fellow citizens,
given the major changes
shaking the world
in this late 20th century,
I have decided
to test political
pluralism in our country.
Thus I solemnly announce
to the Zairian people
the introduction
of a multi-party system
with the freedom
for each and every citizen
to join any political party
they choose.
And what about your
leader in all this?
I hereby announce that today
I'm leaving the Popular Movement
of the Revolution,
so that it can
choose a new leader
to lead the party.
I'm sure you can
understand my emotion.
Mobutu's speech on
24 April 1990
took everyone by surprise.
There were
no leaks beforehand.
The head of the
MPR administration said,
"What's this all about?"
He couldn't believe it.
The MPR was
no longer the single party.
Mobutu believed that
a multi-party system
would mean
his political death.
It was as if he knew
what would happen next.
And in the end,
what everyone remembers
is when he said,
"I'm sure you can
understand my emotion."
NDAGBIA MOBUTU,
MOBUTU'S DAUGHTER
It all makes sense now.
People analysed it
as if, personally,
it was like a personal
defeat for him,
but it wasn't.
For him, it was
all about the country,
it was about
what was coming.
- Everything that came next.
- Exactly.
Everything we experienced.
Freedom! Freedom!
- Freedom! Freedom!
- Down with dictatorship!
- Long live freedom!
- Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
That evening,
some of his advisers,
such as Mobutu's
Chief of Staff, Vunduawe,
said to him, "What have
you done? That was foolish.
Zaire is not Romania.
You can still stay in power.
You're not dead yet."
It was a clumsy
move when he decided
to leave the MPR.
That's what triggered
systematic opposition
against him.
The single party system
meant discipline back then.
But once he opened things
up to democracy,
he lost all of his authority.
And people took
advantage of this.
Mobutu,
with his leopard outfit,
hadn't changed,
but he didn't have the
same power as he used to.
A month later,
a major event occurred
that would have a major
impact on Mobutu's future,
it meant the end of Mobutu
on the international stage.
The old MPR structures
became targets for attacks.
JMPR GENERAL SECRETARIA
At the campus in Lubumbashi
students attacked the JMPR,
the youth wing of the PMR,
Mobutu's brothers,
people from Equateur province,
the Ngbandi,
who had terrorised other students
for years. But now they didn't have
the same status.
This was
a chance to hit back
and now it was their
turn to be afraid.
LUBUMBASHI CAMPUS
General Baramoto's sister,
a student,
was arrested, stripped naked,
she had her hair cut off
and was tortured.
Three students were arrested
from Mobutu's ethnic group.
It was the people's justice.
They put them in this hole
and sentenced them to death
by burning.
All students from Mobutu's
region were being targeted.
They had to flee the campus,
but they said,
"They drove us out,
we must scare them now.
We must go back to campus
and seek revenge."
And wild rumours spread
about how Mobutu
was going to send commandos
to attack the
campus in Lubumbashi.
However, in my opinion,
Mobutu played
no part in these events.
Let me start by saying
there was no massacre
at the campus
in Lubumbashi.
"That night,
there was a black out across
the entire campus in Lubumbashi.
Suddenly,
tall figures in sportswear
rushed towards the students.
The commando unit
was like animals.
Students were stabbed,
their throats and bellies slashed.
Some were thrown
out of windows.
"The unit operated coldly
and methodically."
This is an account
that I wrote at the time,
based on in-depth
interviews that I conducted
with students from
the campus in Lubumbashi.
All the Belgian newspapers
then picked up the story
and it was passed on by
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It was the butterfly effect,
but on an unprecedented scale.
But only one body was found.
C.BRAECKMAN
JOURNALIST IN AFRICA
I wasn't there myself,
but I think the authorities
did everything they could,
very quickly and
very professionally,
to remove the bodies,
to hide them,
to make them disappear.
We don't know,
it is a mystery.
It's one major mystery
in our history
in terms of anyone being killed,
we don't know.
We don't know.
But the good thing about it
is it contributed to Mobutu
losing support on
the international level.
The question is what role did
the security forces play
in these events?
That remains unclear.
This is why
we insist on sending
an international commission
to the campus.
My dear friend, between us,
I have nothing to hide.
Absolutely nothing to hide.
We could send
100, 150, 200 investigation
teams to the campus,
but we still wouldn't
learn anything.
But since this request
comes from Belgium,
do you think I will serve
Belgium's interests?
I'm not at their service,
so there won't be
any international investigation
in Lubumbashi, in Zaire,
since everyone knows that
Belgium is behind this request.
I'm not here
to serve their interests.
That's all I have to say.
During Mobutu's 30-year reign,
there were many
tragedies before this one
and no one made
a big deal of them.
But Belgium was looking for a good
reason to break away from Mobutu.
LONG LIVE
BELGIAN-ZAIRIAN SOLIDARITY
For many years there had been
a disagreement
between Belgium and Zaire.
It was the famous
colonial debt dispute
which dated back to the
time of independence.
Zaire had to keep repaying
its colonial debt
and Mobutu felt that this
debt wasn't legitimate.
He said, "Who is
in the other's debt here?"
And he was right.
Gold, uranium,
the diamonds of Antwerp
When you add up everything
Belgium took from Congo
from the 19th century
until the present day,
who is in the other's debt?
The answer is quite
clear for all to see.
And then he said,
"If Belgium continues
with this quarrel,
then I will reveal everything
that goes on behind the scenes
at the Palace of Laeken."
Long live the King and the Queen!
Long live the Founding President!
In the late 1980s
Zaire's press agency
started a smear campaign
against King Baudouin,
claiming that corruption
was rife in the royal palace.
Of course, this was
a reflection of the true situation
inside Mobutu's own palace.
I once attended a
dinner at Mobutu's.
We were seated
at the head table
between two beautiful
Congolese women.
And they looked
exactly alike.
I said to the person
next to me,
"Those ladies look so similar."
He said, "Of course,
they're twins.
He married one of them,
but we don't
know which one."
He kept switching
between them.
Eventually,
King Baudouin said,
"Stop, that's enough."
I was getting fed up
with Mobutu too,
because nothing had
actually changed in Congo
and they just continued
to take advantage.
So we thought it was
the right time to stop.
LONG LIVE THE
BELGIAN-ZAIRIAN FRIENDSHIP
Diplomatic relations
with Belgium were broken off.
Countries worldwide then followed
suit, cutting ties with Mobutu.
The West abandoned Mobutu.
They wouldn't
give him visas,
he couldn't get a visa
to go anywhere.
Especially in Western countries,
Mobutu vanished.
Mobutu lost his key ally,
the West.
The events in Lubumbashi
changed everything.
On the international level,
Mobutu remained isolated
from then on, right until the end.
J. OMASOMBO
POLITICAL EXPER
He became a pariah.
Western powers,
namely Belgium, America, etc.,
no longer needed an old-fashioned
dictator like Mobutu.
They wanted
so-called democrats
in suits and ties
who got along
well with the IMF
and with renowned
international economists.
A guy with his
leopard hat and cane
was fine in the
1970s and 1080s,
but by 1990,
when the Cold War ended,
they no longer needed
such an eccentric character.
So the Western powers,
and especially the Americans,
via the CIA,
decided that Mobutu's time
was up, that he had to go.
The US had supported Mobutu
all these years,
he was our son of a bich.
He was always considered reliable,
we could always count on him.
But he succumbed to corruption,
to ethnic favouritism,
he promoted himself
as a superhero.
So we was not
a good president of the Congo,
but he was the best
available at the time.
As long as we needed Kamina
Airfield for our work in Angola,
fighting the Cubans,
we didn't bother him.
Kamina, which is still
the only airport in Africa
that is NATO-standard.
But since the Cold War was over,
we didn't need Kamina anymore.
And then,
after the Cubans left Angola,
we just dropped him.
HERMAN COHEN,
US DIPLOMA
We said, "We're not
interested in you anymore."
Very cynical.
So we told the IMF and
the World Bank, you know, "Stop,
Why give him
money anymore?"
Since we had the most votes,
it meant that it was over.
"This time we've got him.
He won't get away
from us this time."
Do you really think so?
They wanted my head.
But this head of mine,
I'll always sell it
at a very high price.
ZAIRE TV
In Kinshasa,
it was still him,
Mobutu was
still in power
as the Head of State.
But in the streets,
the people were
against Mobutu.
DCF AND UNIKIN AGAINS
DICTATORSHIP, CORRUPTION
AND COUNTERFEITING
With democratisation,
in less than a month 400-500
political parties had emerged.
With the multi-party system,
people said of Mobutu,
"Now that MPR is no
longer the national party,
Mobutu is just like
any other citizen."
BUTWHY DON'
THEY RISE UP?
"Mobutu became the boxer who was
no longer throwing any punches.
Mobutu was the
one taking the hits."
Mr Mobutu never developed
a coherent philosophical thought
to support his
political system.
Along with the lies,
came material
and moral corruption,
nepotism and cronyism,
then came the many faces
of the Head of State himself:
founding president,
guide, helmsman,
father of the nation,
marshal,
and so on and so forth.
I ask the commission
to apologise
for such praise that
was borderline reconciliation.
It took things too far.
Freedom! Freedom!
The man who would become the face
of the Congolese opposition
was Étienne Tshisekedi.
The Tshisekedi name
became very well known.
The elder Tshisekedi
had been Mobutu's ally
and the MPR's
second-in-command.
He was involved
in Lumumba's death,
in the Whitsun hangings.
He was Mobutu's deputy.
But Tshisekedi Sr would
eventually oppose Mobutu's regime!
He must go.
If he's wise,
he would resign right away.
If not,
the people will chase him out
like with his friend Ceausescu.
Mobutu is dead!
Mobutu is dead!
TSHISEKEDI'S SUPPORTERS
Mobutu is dead!
Mobutu is dead!
Mobutu is buried!
Mobutu is buried!
Mobutu is buried!
Mobutu is buried!
Everything that was
said about him
He was a human being too,
he saw it as people being
ungrateful, because some people
wouldn't recognise
everything that he had
done for this country.
So he decided to move
to Gbadolite. He said to them,
"Okay, do whatever
you want over there."
He distanced himself, he moved
1,200 kilometres away from Kinshasa
and that's when everything
fell into chaos.
Do you enjoy coming here
and relaxing?
I moved away
from the capital,
I'm keeping my distance to let
the government do its work.
But all I hear is,
"Mobutu this, Mobutu that".
You can see my
face everywhere.
Now that it's growing,
in a few days' time
we'll see the first flowers.
He no longer wanted to put his
heart into working for the country.
That's the truth of it.
Of course, the people wanted him
to come back home to Kinshasa,
even the people
in his home region.
We need to find
the happiness we lost.
We've hit rock bottom.
Mr President, we beg you
with tears in our eyes,
take back your position,
return to power.
Look at your photo.
I show it to people
so they can see you.
We have tears in our eyes.
You must return to Kinshasa
and return to your post
so that we can eat.
We are suffering
terribly right now.
Take this man and
give him two gifts.
One for him and
one for the others.
Thank you.
Sometimes do you think,
"I'm fed up of all of this?"
I wouldn't say it out loud,
but, of course I do,
I'm only human after all.
Do you think Zaire
can cope without Mobutu?
Mobutu won't live forever.
They'll cope eventually,
but maybe not while
I'm still alive.
KINSHASA,
SEPTEMBER 1991
- At the end of the boulevard.
- They're really spraying bullets.
- They've shot plenty of bullets.
- They're shooting over here too.
While a weakened Mobutu
was living in Gbadolite,
the army was leading
a mutiny here in Kinshasa.
I saw it. At night,
I'd hide behind my curtains,
watching everything
from the second floor.
The presidential guard
was looting the
entire city of Kinshasa.
They came in military jeeps
and broke into stores.
They took what people were
really looking for at the time:
mattresses.
That tells you all
you need to know,
they were for their kids.
They also took electrical
appliances: freezers, fridges, etc.
Poverty was rife
in Congo at the time.
Poverty was everywhere,
even in the army.
And the people entered
these stores after them,
picking up the
bits and pieces,
fabrics or plastic buckets
that the soldiers had left behind.
It was chaos, it was impossible
to know who was doing what.
We lived like animals.
We stole rice and food to eat.
And clothes too.
The suffering in Kinshasa
had become too great.
The population were fed up
with Mobutu's politics,
they were tired of
not getting paid.
So they took to the streets
to destroy everything.
The problem was that
First, there was a wave
of soldiers who came in
and looted everything.
Then civilians
entered after them,
but meanwhile,
a second wave
of soldiers arrived
and was waiting for the civilians
to come out with their loot.
Once they came out,
they started shooting
and the shots rang out,
we'd drop everything
on the ground.
We ran away and
they stole our loot.
The strongest ones managed
to hold on to their things.
We stepped over bodies, but there
was no way of counting them.
I was in Kinshasa
during the looting.
At first,
we weren't sure
what was going on.
It could have been looting,
or maybe a coup.
The soldiers weren't
behaving normally.
Near the apartment
where I was staying,
we could hear
shooting everywhere
and my bodyguards said,
"We need to leave.
This building isn't secure
and we'll be safer
at the military camp."
I said, "The camp?
We'd have to cross the whole city
and they're shooting out there!"
And I wondered if I should
really go to a military camp
YANGO MOBUTU,
MOBUTU'S DAUGHTER
But they said to me, "Don't worry,
it's the safest place for you."
So, I thought,
"Hmm, okay, let's go."
So we left and crossed
the entire city.
It was
no joke,
but when we got
to the camp,
I saw that it was indeed
the safest place for me.
But my father
wasn't at the camp,
he was just outside the city.
So we then had
to cross the whole city again
to meet up with him.
But he was calm
and composed.
I didn't think he was
worried in any way.
On the contrary, seeing how
he was reassured me.
We have a
statement prepared.
Hello, Marshal.
Of course, President Mobutu,
like the political animal he was,
he took advantage
of this situation.
He benefitted from it
by simply allowing these
events to unfold.
He could have quickly
taken back control
using the military and all,
but he let
the situation unfold.
It was an indirect
way of punishing
those who weren't
on his side.
My fellow citizens,
the city of Kinshasa
is experiencing unrest
that is unprecedented
in the capital
since independence.
Many people believe
that the soldiers were involved
because they had a green light
from Mobutu.
I don't have any
evidence of that,
but that's what the
majority of people believe,
that it was designed
by Mobutu
to disrupt the
process of change.
And that really was terrible.
Meanwhile, it seemed
like every day
there was a party at Mobutu's
place in Gbadolite.
They threw big parties with
dignitaries from across the globe.
For these parties,
they, of course, needed
200 or 500 bottles
worth $2,000 each.
During the day,
Mobutu would stay inside,
you wouldn't see him outside,
but there were
beach bars.
Europeans, Congolese, Africans -
everyone wanted to see Mobutu.
To get their hands on a diamond
mine or another type of mine.
They all wanted to secure
a meeting with Mobutu.
At Mobutu's residence,
there was a bank,
the Kawele bank,
with a manager
and a room full of safes.
So in Gbadolite,
80% of people were coming to see
the chief, hoping to do business.
Some waited for a month,
coming in every morning.
But this was when
the ship was sinking.
The IMF and the World Bank
were fed up with Mobutu.
Nothing was coming in,
we weren't paying them.
Officially, the country
had no more money.
What does that mean?
That means that
The Bank of Zaire,
the national bank,
was no longer able,
had no more money
to order new banknotes.
So what he did was he found
some Lebanese people
who were producing
counterfeit dollars.
Mobutu joined this network
and started to produce fake Zaires.
And he got his share.
By the end of his regime,
he'd become a criminal, a thug.
He started to realise that
his end was drawing near,
but he didn't want
to think about it.
"Oh boy, it won't be easy.
After me, the flood!"
.He loved that phrase:
after me, the flood.
Did you see Saturday's
newspaper, the Libération?
It was incredibly
tough on you.
"Mobutu the counterfeiter,
the dictator"
"Who is stealing from the till
and all that, go on."
- What?
- Go on. Go on.
Go on, "counterfeiter".
"Who is stealing
from the till." Go on.
The decay of Mobutu's regime
had reached the peak.
But then in 1994,
eventually,
being the political
animal that he was,
he took advantage of an incident,
hoping to save the situation.
Rwanda's President Habyarimana
was assassinated.
His plane was shot
down and it crashed.
Habyarimana died instantly.
KIGALI, RWANDA,
APRIL 1994
That's when
the Rwandan genocide began.
Within a week,
over a million people,
mainly the Hutus,
fled Rwanda.
France would ask Mobutu
to accept refugees
in our country.
Mobutu had been isolated
so he seized the opportunity,
he saw this as an opening.
But the opening
wasn't very wide,
it would soon become a trap.
France desperately
needed Mobutu to agree
to take in
millions of refugees,
mainly Hutus,
some of whom may
have been involved
in the genocide.
Of course, not all of them
were involved.
But these refugees
had to be retrieved
from the hills of Zaire.
KIVU, CONGO/ZAIRE
The entire Kivu region,
on the border with Rwanda,
is truly the
most strategic region
in Africa, as it is
full of rare metals.
And in Mitterrand's mind,
if we supported
Habyarimana's regime
and if we maintain good
relations with Mobutu,
the region's wealth
might, eventually,
benefit France.
Mobutu, who had been
abandoned by the Americans
had a perfect
opportunity to say,
"Look, I'm here.
I'll help you."
From then on,
Mobutu was invited
to all Franco-African summits.
Mobutu was there,
next to the French President.
It was really
it was incredible,
it was a complete turnaround.
18TH CONFERENCE
OF HEADS OF STATE
OF FRANCE AND AFRICA.
And at that moment
I think everyone
around Mitterrand knew
that Mobutu had very
advanced-stage prostate cancer.
In France, they thought,
"Either the old man dies
and we'll find
another President."
But France wanted to reclaim
Zaire, that was quite clear.
Mobutu had lost
touch with reality.
I think that, at the end,
he was very sick,
he's not well at all.
Was Mobutu really aware
what it meant
to offer shelter
to all of those refugees
who were in the Kivu region?
Because this refugee issue
would accelerate Mobutu's fall
and the long-term
destabilisation of the region,
that continues to this day.
APRIL 1996, PARIS
He could have had
treatment for the issue,
but he didn't follow
his doctors' advice.
FELIX VUNDUAWE,
MOBUTU'S CHIEF OF STAFF
Let's say that he trusted,
that he turned to
other people for guidance,
not medical experts.
What other people
are you referring to?
Private advisors
who weren't necessarily doctors.
Prostate cancer can be cured
if it's caught early.
What you do,
is you take out the prostate.
It's surgery.
So they told him,
"Mr President, you must do this,
otherwise you could have big
troubles with your health."
And he refused.
Why did he refuse?
Because every day
Every day he had
to have a virgin.
He had to sleep
with a virgin every day.
And when you take out the prostate,
you can't do that anymore.
So he was willing to live
with a cancer of the prostate.
He told that to you? That every
day he wanted a virgin?
Oh no, it was
common knowledge,
it wasn't a secret.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND,
AUGUST 1996
There are questions about
Marshal Mobutu's health
as he continues to recover
in Switzerland
after surgery for
prostate cancer.
President Mobutu
isn't the first person
to have prostate surgery.
His condition is improving
day by day.
He was in such pain
we called the doctor.
He couldn't sleep.
But he wouldn't
show people his suffering.
He hid a lot from me,
he alone knew the truth.
He had read that Mitterrand
had recently died
of prostate cancer.
He knew he would die.
He just didn't know when.
When he had surgery in 1996,
he had to
undergo chemotherapy.
They told him they'd have
to push him in a wheelchair,
but he refused.
MOBUTU'S SON
I remember
the doctor saying,
"I don't know
how he can bear this pain,
we're using
quite high doses."
But at the same time,
I was aware that
any sensitive
information about this
could be used
by our opponents.
That was a concern.
You should know that,
regarding his health,
there was a leak.
In the medical team,
a doctor who had
taken Mobutu's blood
gave it to the CIA.
So they had Mobutu's blood
and they could analyse it.
So they knew
what disease he had
and could predict
what would happen to him.
OCTOBER 1996,
KIGALI, RWANDA
I used to go to Rwanda
a lot back then.
I was in touch with the head
of military operations,
General Kagame,
a Tutsi who would eventually
become the region's strongman.
And I clearly
remember doing
an interview with Kagame
where he explained that
these masses of refugees
in the border region
were people
who had committed genocide
and who were preparing
to attack Rwanda.
He said, "If the United Nations
and our neighbour, Zaire,
don't do something
to resolve this issue,
I assure you,
we'll handle it ourselves.
I'm concerned about
their presence in Zaire.
If you slap me in the face,
before I hit back,
I may not hit in the face,
I may hit somewhere else.
So I have to think and
see where I'm going to hit.
- But you will hit?
- There's no question about it.
I must admit
I was sceptical.
I couldn't imagine a country that
was still teetering from genocide
threatening Mobutu's
mighty Zaire.
But what I didn't know was
just how weak Mobutu's
Zaire had become.
And I had no idea
how much Kagame,
his army and the Rwandan Patriotic
Front were backed by America.
Kagame gave the order
to send troops
into the refugee camps.
They caught up
with the genocidal people
and killed them all.
But Kagame,
from there he started planning
to fight and get rid of Mobutu,
because he wanted
to control the wealth,
to control
the wealth of the Congo.
We never encouraged them
to invade the Congo,
but we had no way
of stopping them.
And, of course,
we were happy to see
Mobutu go at this point.
PATIENT MOBUTU,
AGE 68. WEIGHT 32KG.
PROSTATE CANCER.
NATIONALITY: FRENCH.
To take all the power
against Mobutu,
Rwanda had decided to
look for a Congolese leader
to gain support from
the Congolese people.
Kabila won out. Why?
Because he was a yes man.
The objective of the Alliance
ALLIANCE FOR THE
LIBERATION OF CONGO-ZAIRE
is to overthrow
the Mobutu government.
The Rwandans fell
in love with him.
They said,
"This is the guy we want",
because he agrees with us.
He had no principles.
All these people
are simply opportunists
who want power.
They don't care
where it comes from.
He had no army
to fight for the Congo.
Kabila had the kadogos,
the little soldiers.
They had nothing,
they were just intimidating,
he had kids holding
a big rifle
which they probably
couldn't even shoot.
So he didn't have anybody.
He depended on the Rwandan
and Ugandan armies.
They wanted their person
in power in the Congo.
He was just
a puppet, really,
Kabila was just nothing,
he had nothing to say.
The US position is clear.
But in the US at the time,
we thought Kabila might be
a good substitute for Mobutu.
So we provided
intelligence to Kabila
moving towards getting rid
of Mobutu in Kinshasa.
He knew it was
all made-up,
that they wanted
a story of a rebellion,
but this was all
managed from overseas.
It was all just
a big fairy tale.
So we had
to fight against that.
He spent a long time
recovering near Nice
where he had a large castle,
a big house,
but then he had
to return to Kinshasa
because the AFDL
was advancing
and the situation
was getting worse.
The people were told
to come into the streets
and a lot of
money was spent
on signs to
welcome Mobutu.
MARSHAL MOBUTU
FOR THE SURVIVAL OF THE NATION!
The plane was
on the tarmac,
but Mobutu didn't
want to get off,
he was having
a meltdown on the plane.
He was exhausted from the
chemotherapy and everything.
They had to wait
for over an hour
and when Mobutu
eventually emerged,
the people gazed upon a man
whose cheeks had sunken in.
The enemies of our people
choose the moment
when I'm struck by illness
to stab me in the back.
As they know what
our territorial integrity,
national unity
and the dignity of great
Zaire mean to me.
I've devoted my life
In 1997,
I was named ambassador
to the UN
by President Clinton.
My first assignment
was to go to Zaire
and try to convince
President Mobutu
BILL RICHARDSON
US DIPLOMA
to leave office.
This Congo situation
was getting out of control,
there were a lot of killings.
What happens
with some leaders
is they have advisors that
don't tell them the truth.
I think he felt
his army could win.
I said, "Mr. President, no."
I was direct. I said,
"Mr. President, we want
you to leave with dignity,
to leave now.
Your time is up.
This happens to a
lot of leaders.
But Kabila is about
to come into Kinshasa
and there will be
blood and death.
Your military is defecting.
We want you to be safe.
You're sick, you're not well.
We'll take your family.
The time is now.
President Mandela will
do the mediating."
That was my message.
POINTE-NOIRE,
CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE
Kabila was afraid to negotiate
on land, for his safety.
The negotiations were
held on a boat.
I don't know what people had been
saying to him, but he was scared.
They had convinced Kabila
that Mobutu was
some sort of sorcerer
and that,
if you negotiated with him,
if you looked him
straight in the eyes,
he could bewitch you.
So at the negotiations Kabila
never looked Mobutu
in the eyes.
President Mobutu
understands that
the responsibility
lies primarily on him
for facilitating a solution.
The talks were meant to
be about Mobutu's future.
How to manage this situation?
How would he step down?
But Kabila was so arrogant
that he refused to
negotiate anything in the end.
He believed that Mobutu simply had
to sign and offer his resignation.
They didn't care one bit
about Mobutu's future.
So Mobutu said,
"Under these conditions,
I have nothing to
negotiate or sign."
Of course, he was aware
that it was over for him,
as he no longer had
the support of his army.
He knew all was lost.
We knew the
rebels were already
quite close to Kinshasa.
So, that's when
he realised
he had to leave,
that he had to flee Kinshasa
and go to Gbadolite.
Mobutu fled Kinshasa
like some sort of thief.
He expected things
to explode in Kinshasa.
And then,
every soldier scattered and
it was every man for himself.
Who are we fighting
for? For Mobutu?
Who does nothing for us
and who took all the money?
17 MAY 1997,
KINSHASA
The AFDL arrived.
There was no fighting
and we were all
in the streets.
We cheered them
on, me included.
When a column passed by,
we applauded.
We celebrated.
The AFDL's arrival
was like a celebration.
It wasn't
a conflict situation.
These young people
with their swollen feet
entering the city,
with their shells
and cannons.
And the people were celebrating
Mobutu's fall with palm branches.
Portraits were removed from the
walls of offices and ministries.
"Mobutu, Mobutu,
Mobutu is gone."
It felt like a dream.
Kinshasa had fallen,
Mobutu had fled to Gbadolite.
It wasn't the AFDL,
it wasn't the newcomers
who went to hunt
Mobutu in Gbadolite.
No, it was his own soldiers,
those from his
presidential guard,
his own ethnic group,
his brothers.
He wanted to stay
there and die there.
The kids kept trying
to convince him,
"We have to go, Dad.
Let's go."
He left eventually,
reluctantly.
For the President's comfort,
they loaded the car
onto the military plane.
We were lucky that
it was a military plane,
or we would have crashed
down in Gbadolite.
They shot at the plane
and it was riddled with holes.
The great Mobutu was gone.
In the end,
he was a lonely man,
fleeing with his
wife and children.
Like in his early days,
he was alone again.
A few months later,
far from his homeland,
he died.
RABAT, MOROCCO
"Forgive me."
Those were his last words.
Why did he ask for forgiveness?
Only he knows.
I asked the Lord for forgiveness
for what we did to him,
on behalf of all
Zairians, including myself,
because he was the father
of our nation.
We thought we'd hit
rock bottom under Mobutu
and that his replacement
could only make things better.
KABILA BECOMES
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
But when Laurent-Désiré Kabila
came over from Rwanda,
that was when the Congolese
truly lost their country.
Mr. Laurent-Désiré Kabila
takes on the duties of the
role of Head of State
As soon as he was in power,
the Rwandans, in effect,
took over Kinshasa.
They took all
the best apartments,
they took all the vehicles
and that sort of thing.
They were really running
the Congo government.
Now we have an army that
is infiltrated by Rwandans.
Today,
Rwanda has the world's largest
market of coltan in the world today.
They don't produce
a single kilo of coltan.
All that comes
from the Congo,
which they sell
to the outside world.
America and Canada,
Western Europe, Russia
They all benefit from these
resources from the Congo.
And we're left
with a very rich country,
but with nothing
to show for it.
People are still suffering,
people are still very, very poor.
SEPTEMBER 2022,
RABAT,
THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY
OF MOBUTU'S DEATH
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, on earth
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day
our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who
trespass against us.
And lead us
not into temptation
Three presidents have
succeeded him since he left.
They all copied
Mobutu at first.
They all wanted all
the power in their hands,
"I am the leader,
I am this country."
But they've all fallen
to the same fate as he did.
And with Mobutu,
corruption spread, seeping
into every level of society.
Every level.
Mobutu seems to be saying
to us, "I'm still here."
We're still living under Mobutism,
but without Mobutu.