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- <text id=90TT1147>
- <title>
- May 07, 1990: World Notes:Zaire
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- May 07, 1990 Dirty Words
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 47
- World Notes
- ZAIRE
- Moving Up But Not Out
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Traveling through his central African domain this spring,
- President Mobutu Sese Seko heard crowds demand democracy and an
- end to injustice and corruption. The former army sergeant, who
- has held power since 1965, vowed that "the will of the majority
- will be respected."
- </p>
- <p> To the surprise of many, Mobutu appeared on TV last week to
- announce that opposition parties would be legalized, the
- constitution rewritten and elections held within a year.
- Meanwhile, he has appointed a Prime Minister to handle
- day-to-day affairs.
- </p>
- <p> But he will remain as President by popular demand, he said,
- "above politics." Some of Mobutu's critics suggested he was
- simply swapping his dictatorship for a monarchy. Nonsense,
- replied Mobutu, "I am the son of a cook, not a king."
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-