WEBVTT

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[music]

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Joseph Mobutu was a young journalist at
the time when Congo is a Belgian colony.

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Named chief of staff at independence
in 1960, he shows himself to be a man

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both skilful and cunning in the use of power.
With the aid of the CIA and Belgium\'s complicity,

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he betrays his spiritual father, the
Nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba

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and has him brutally murdered.
Four years of troubles

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and the civil war follow which General Mobutu
wins with the help of the western powers.

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A year later in 1965, Mobutu
proclaims himself president

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in a military coup, eliminates all trace of the
opposition and installs a one-party system

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-devoted totally to himself, the MPR.

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Congo now knows as Zaire, undergoes
the darkest period in its history.

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Mobutism is established as a state religion and the
personality cult achieves its greatest heights.

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[music]

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[music]

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[music]

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At the university, Mobutu
is publicly defied

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which leads to a confrontation.

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Soldiers fire point blank into the
crowd and carry away the bodies.

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No one will ever know how many were killed
and where and how the students were buried.

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[music]

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The leaders of the upraising are tried, 12
of them are sentenced to life imprisonment.

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[sil.]

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President Mobutu closes down the university

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and inducts the 2,000
students into the army.

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[music]

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Far from the boisterous auditoriums
and syllabuses, these new recruits

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learn to obey and to shut-up,
to march and to gravel.

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[music]

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After the university

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it\'s the turn of the church to dare show
their reservations to criticize the

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party state and its founder president.

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A short time later, Monseigneur Malula

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is sent into exile near
the Holy See in Rome.

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Following the trial,

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13 are executed.

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[sil.]

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While dancing with his wife
Marie-Antoinette, the President

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savors the success from the recognition which
the dignitaries of the former colonial power

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the Kingdom of Belgium now confer on him.

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[music]

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Mama Mobutu, Marie-Antoinette
his first wife,

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they were married, I believe when
she was 14 and he was 16. She was

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extremely influential. She
was a very strong woman.

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Sometimes, when I was seated with
him and he had done something that

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she did… which she did not approve, she
would storm into the room and begin to

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let him know in no uncertain terms that
she was unhappy with his decision.

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[music]

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[music]

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A short time after the death of his
first wife and a few days before the

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arrival of Pope John Paul II in Kinshasa,
Mobutu makes his peace with God

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and his people. He marries a primary
school teacher Bobi Ladawa,

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his onetime mistress with whom
he already has four children.

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[music]

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The most diligent worker of this country,

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Mobutu Sese Seko rules Zaire rich in
minerals, gold, diamonds, cobalt,

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and above all copper from the former
colonial Union Minière renamed Gécamines.

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The president intoxicated
by always economic strength

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which enriches the state\'s coffers,
sees his power reinforced.

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[sil.]

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He conceives Pharaoh like industrial projects for
the country which has now become a new Eldorado

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for international businessmen. It
is the era of the white elephants,

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the mammoth projects which will fill the
coffers of the major international companies

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and the pockets of a few
notable Mobutuists.

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In fact, a word was coined kleptocracy,

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a Greek word which means a
government… government by theft,

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uh… coined I think uniquely for Zaire.

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The corruption there was from top
to bottom, from top to bottom.

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I think, that(ph) became a
confusion perhaps in Mobutu\'s mind

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as to, you know, (inaudible)

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, he was…

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he was the government, therefore
the treasury was his piggy bank.

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He could… Again we go back
to the tribal chieftain.

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It\'s my impression that tribal chieftain
always had the most… the best

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hut or the best home in the village. They had
the most wives. They had the most chickens

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and the most goats. He was also so clearly
a man who would amassed a fortune

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for himself from all aspects
of economic life in Zaire.

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He\'d accumulated wealth that I have
no reliable way of estimating.

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But I can tell you that it is often considered to
be as much as three or four billions of dollars

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that he had in accounts elsewhere.

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In the middle of an economic crisis,

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Mobutu inaugurates an ambitious space program
with German industrialists in east of Zaire.

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[music]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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The Zairian opponents in exile

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attacked the southern part of the territory from
across the border of a neighboring country.

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Seriously shaken, the supreme
commander of the Zairian armed forces

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visits the field of operations. He\'s there
to galvanize his troops and play at

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being a hero of great wars in
front of the television cameras.

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The foreign legion attacks Kolwezi,

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officially to protect the
European population. Once again,

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the regime and President
Mobutu are saved just in time.

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[sil.]

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[music]

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President of the Republic,

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Founder President of the party, supreme
commander of the armed forces,

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Supreme Magistrate, Mobutu accumulates
more and more official titles

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and still he\'s not satisfied. He
dreams of being president for life

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or even better King of Zaire.
But being a cautious man,

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Mobutu who has claimed three victories
over the enemy has the military hierarchy

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elect him Martial of Zaire.

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[sil.]

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13 members of parliament denounce the regime and
the institutionalized corruption in an extremely

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critical open letter addressed to the
President. Among them is Etienne Tshisekedi,

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the craftsman of the first constitution, the
ex-minister of justice and of the interior.

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Tshisekedi and the decedent members of
parliament have dared to raise their voices,

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they\'re quickly arrested for
insulting the Head of State

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and sentenced to 15 years
of penal servitude.

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[sil.]

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As is the custom, elections
are held every seven years

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and Mobutu -the only candidate puts himself
forward as presidential candidate.

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Electors have a choice between
two ballet papers, the green one

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for unity and peace, the red
one for change and disorder.

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[sil.]

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Elected unanimously

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by an absolute majority, Mobutu
legitimizes his dictatorship in a

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ritual performance of taking the oath in the presence
of all the constituent bodies of Zairian nation.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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I had the feeling about him

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sometimes that he\'d used up
the pleasures in his life,

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if I can put them that way, if I
can put that thought that way.

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I think that there were times when
he was bored, and then increasingly

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his life was dominated
by a kind of boredom.

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I thought of him as a person who had
his homes in Paris, in Switzerland,

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in southern France, and all the money

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that anybody could possibly want and
found that it hadn\'t brought him

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the full measure of satisfaction that he…
that he yearned far. He was still a person

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in his mid-50s, which is not all that old.

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And yet this kind of
sober quality to him was

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often to be found. And I can imagine
Mobutu who was felt himself

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increasingly in a fortress.
His isolation is increased

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and his misery must have increased.