History of Congo Mobutu

After the failure of a coalition government, Mobutu seized power late 1965 and, having deposited Kasavubu, proclaims président.En 1966, establishes a presidential authoritarian regime, supported by a single party, the Popular Movement the Revolution (MPR), endorsed by a new constitution the following year. Mines operated by foreign companies were nationalized. In 1970, Mobutu, elected for a seven-year presidential term, launching a vast program of Africanization and 'return to authenticity ", causing a conflict with the Catholic Church, opposed to the de-Christianization of names for a resumption of traditional names. In 1971, Mobutu decided to change the country's name, which becomes Zaire, the name of the river Congo, also Zaire, the towns and Lake Albert which was renamed Mobutu (the Ugandan part of Lake retaining the husband's name Queen Victoria). The revenues of the country, still very dependent on the export of copper, significantly decrease from 1974, falling prices causing a worsening of the external debt, when the international economic crisis consecutive to the first oil crisis affecting the country. In 1976, Mobutu was forced to reintroduce foreign companies in the country. The President, despite the authoritarian orientation of the regime still maintains close relations with Belgium and France, which, alongside Morocco, intervene in 1977 and in 1978, to contain new secessionist attempts of Katanga (then called Shaba ), the rebels being supported by Angola. After the country abandoned in 1986, the austerity program packaging the loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the dark Zaire in an economic crisis fueling opposition to the regime. In 1990 multiply strikes and protests against government corruption, plundering the country's resources by the president and his entourage, the permanent violation of human rights and lack of democratic expression. Mobutu, pressed by Western countries to democratize the regime accepts the meeting a national conference and legalized in 1991, the opposition parties. But democratization remains chaotic, the president opposing the National Conference established to draft a new constitution. Until 1994, the coups of President - authoritarian dismissal of Prime Minister Etienne Tshisekedi declared opponent, arbitrary suspension of the National Conference - meet riots and demonstrations violently repressed by the presidential guard of Mobutu. From June 1994, however, the situation is gradually improving, with the agreement for power sharing between the Head of State and the High Council of the Republic - transitional parliament. The elections scheduled for July 1995, however, are postponed. President Mobutu The political and social situation remains indeed uncertain, and the influx, from the end of 1994, 1.5 million Rwandan Hutu refugees (fleeing the resumption of power by the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front in Kigali in July 1994) to the eastern border of Zaire aggravates internal disorders. The situation worsens during summer 1996 when the Zairean army and Hutu militia, the Interahamwe, who controlled the refugee camps join forces against the Tutsi Banyamulenge. These warriors pastors, installed since 1930 in Kivu, Rwanda fought in the ranks of the RPF and want to oppose the expansion of export crops on their pastures; they repass the border with the Rwandan army and inflict severe losses to the Zairian army. Rwandan military leaders, including General Paul Kagame wants to solve the issue of refugee camps controlled by the leaders of the Tutsi genocide. In mid-October 1996, the camps near Bukavu region under attack Tutsi Zairean rebels (the Banyamulenge), led by a veteran Mulelist rebellion Kabila, changed the trade of gold and ivory in the 1980s during the fall of 1996, Hutu refugees flow back en masse to Rwanda. Faced with these population shifts taking place in dramatic circumstances, and after many hesitations, the international community does not intervene. Starting from the eastern border, the Zairian rebellion, equipped and logistically supported by Rwanda, Uganda and Angola, advancing rapidly towards the west, taking the regions of Goma, Bukavu and Kisangani, as well as southbound to the mining areas of Katanga and Kasai where mining companies negotiate their support for Kabila. The movement, organized around Kabila and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL)