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The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998
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Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso
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Zaire
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Country in central Africa. government Zaire
is a one-party state, based on the Popular
Movement of the Revolution (MPR). Under the
1978 constitution, the leader of the MPR is
automatically elected president for a
nonrenewable seven-year term. The president,
head of state and head of government,
appoints and presides over the National
Executive Council. There is a single-chamber
legislature, the National Legislative
Council, whose 210 members are elected by
universal suffrage for a five-year term.
Ultimate power lies with the MPR, whose
highest policy-making body is the 80-member
Central Committee, which elects the 14-member
Political Bureau. history The name Zaire
(from Zadi, `big water') was given by
Portuguese explorers who arrived on the
country's Atlantic coast in the 15th century.
The great medieval kingdom of Kongo, centred
on the banks of the Zaire river, was then in
decline, and the subsequent slave trade
weakened it further. The interior was not
explored by Europeans until the arrival of
Stanley and Livingstone in the 1870s, partly
financed by Leopold II of Belgium, who
established the Congo Free State under his
personal rule 1885. Local resistance was
suppressed and the inhabitants were
exploited. When the atrocious treatment of
local labour was made public, Belgium annexed
the country as a colony, the Belgian Congo,
1908, and conditions were marginally
improved. Zaire was given full independence
in June 1960 as the Republic of the Congo.
The new state was intended to be governed
centrally from Leopoldville by President
Joseph Kasavubu and Prime Minister Patrice
Lumumba, but Moise Tshombe immediately
declared the rich mining province of Katanga
independent under his leadership. Fighting
broke out, which was not quelled by Belgian
troops, and the United Nations (UN) Security
Council agreed to send a force to restore
order and protect lives. Meanwhile,
disagreements between Kasavubu and Lumumba on
how the crisis should be tackled prompted the
Congolese army commander, Col Joseph-Desire
Mobutu, to step in and temporarily take over
the government. Lumumba was imprisoned and
later released and five months later power
was handed back to Kasavubu. Soon afterwards
Lumumba was murdered and the white
mercenaries employed by Tshombe were thought
to be responsible. The outcry that followed
resulted in a new government being formed,
with Cyrille Adoula as prime minister. During
the fighting between Tshombe's mercenaries
and UN forces the UN secretary general, Dag
Hammarskjold, flew to Katanga province to
mediate and was killed in an air crash on the
border with Northern Rhodesia. The attempted
secession of Katanga was finally stopped in
1963 when Tshombe went into exile, taking
many of his followers with him to form the
Congolese National Liberation Front (FNLC).
In July 1964 Tshombe returned from exile and
President Kasavubu appointed him interim
prime minister until elections for a new
government could be held. In Aug the country
was renamed the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. A power struggle soon developed
between Kasavubu and Tshombe and again the
army, under Mobutu, intervened, establishing
a `second republic' in Nov 1965. A new
constitution was adopted 1967 and 1970 Mobutu
was elected president for a seven-year term.
The following year the country became the
Republic of Zaire and 1972 the Popular
Movement of the Revolution (MPR) was declared
the only legal political party. In the same
year the president became known as Mobutu
Sese Seko. Mobutu, re-elected 1977, carried
out a large number of political and
constitutional reforms. He gradually improved
the structure of public administration and
brought stability to what had once seemed an
ungovernable country. However, the harshness
of some of his policies brought international
criticism and 1983 he offered amnesty to all
political exiles. Despite some demonstrations
of opposition, Marshal Mobutu, as he was now
called, was re-elected 1984 for a third term.
Towards the end of 1988 a potentially
dangerous, and not fully explained, rift with
Belgium was narrowly averted.