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- WORLD, Page 53World NotesZAIREMurderous Farce
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- When an army mutiny and rioting forced President Mobutu Sese
- Seko to join with the opposition in a coalition government last
- month, many Zairians rejoiced over what they hoped would spell
- the end of Mobutu's 26-year lock on power. But last week, as
- violence once more swept Zairian cities, the coalition was in a
- state of disarray -- and Mobutu was still there.
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- The latest unrest was prompted by Mobutu's ouster of his
- new Prime Minister, Etienne Tshisekedi, a leader of the
- opposition coalition, who had angered Mobutu by refusing to
- swear allegiance to him. Mobutu named a lesser opposition
- figure, Bernardin Mungul Diaka, as replacement. But Tshisekedi
- refused to step down. Instead, he rallied opposition support,
- and the standoff continued. What had started as a forced
- experiment in multiparty democracy had become a murderous farce,
- and it was far from over.
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