Zaire
République du Zaïre Repubuliki ya Zaïre Jamhuri ya Zaïre | |
|---|---|
Coat of arms
| |
| Motto: Justice - Peace - Work French: Justice - Paix - Travail | |
| Anthem: La Zaïroise | |
 | |
| Capital and largest city | Kinshasa |
| Official languages | French (Lingala, Kikongo, Swahili, Tshiluba are national languages) |
| Government | dictatorship |
| Independence | |
• Water (%) | 3.3% |
| Population | |
• 1996 estimate | 46,498,539 (?) |
• 1938 census | 10,217,408 |
| GDP (PPP) | 1995 estimate |
• Total | 16,500 ¹ (?) |
• Per capita | 400 (?) |
| Currency | Zaïre (ZRZ) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 to +2 (CET, EET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+1 to +2 (not observed) |
| Calling code | 243 |
| Internet TLD | .zr |
¹ Estimate is based on regression; other PPP figures are extrapolated from the latest International Comparison Programme benchmark estimates. | |
Zaire (spelled Zaïre in French) was the name of the Second Republic of Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1971 and 1997. Although it came into use in 1971, the name Zaire is often still used for the portion of the Congo controlled by Mobutu since 1965. This article addresses this subsequent usage.
History
In 1960 the Belgian Congo gained its independence as the "Republic of the Congo" from Belgium. This was the same as a former French colony, Congo, with which it shares a border. In 1966 the Republic of the Congo added Democratic to become Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, the two countries are commonly distinguished by their capitals: Congo (Kinshasa) (then Congo (Léopoldville)) and Congo (Brazzaville).
Unrest and rebellion plagued the government until 1965, when Lieutenant General Mobutu, by then commander in chief of the national army, seized control of the country and declared himself president for five years. Mobutu quickly consolidated his power and was elected unopposed as president in 1970. Embarking on a campaign of cultural awareness, Mobutu renamed the country the Republic of Zaire and required citizens to adopt African names. The country was thus renamed the Republic of Zaire. This decision was curious, given that the name Congo, which referred both to the river Congo and to the ancient Kongo Empire, was fundamentally "authentic" to pre-colonial African roots, while Zaire is in fact a Portuguese corruption of another African word, Nzere ("river", by Nzadi o Nzere, "the river that swallow all the other rivers", another name of the Congo river). General Mobutu became Mobutu Sese Seko and forced all his citizens to adopt African names and many cities were also renamed. Some of the conversions are as follows:
- Léopoldville became Kinshasa
- Stanleyville became Kisangani
- Elisabethville became Lubumbashi
- Jadotville became Likasi
- Albertville became Kalemie
Additionally, the zaïre was introduced to replace the franc as the new national currency. 100 makuta (singular likuta) equaled one zaïre. Relative peace and stability prevailed until 1977 and 1978 when Katangan rebels, based in Angola, launched a series of invasions into the Shaba (Katanga) region. The rebels were driven out with the aid of Belgian paratroopers.
During the 1980s, Zaire remained a one-party state. Although Mobutu successfully maintained control during this period, opposition parties, most notably the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS), were active. Mobutu's attempts to quell these groups drew significant international criticism.
As the Cold War came to a close, internal and external pressures on Mobutu increased. In late 1989 and early 1990, Mobutu was weakened by a series of domestic protests, by heightened international criticism of his regime's human rights practices, by a faltering economy, and by government corruption, most notably his massive embezzlement of government funds for personal use.
In May 1990 Mobutu agreed to the principle of a multi-party system with elections and a constitution. As details of a reform package were delayed, soldiers in September 1991 began looting Kinshasa to protest their unpaid wages. Two thousand French and Belgian troops, some of whom were flown in on U.S. Air Force planes, arrived to evacuate the 20,000 endangered foreign nationals in Kinshasa.
In 1992, after previous similar attempts, the long-promised Sovereign National Conference was staged, encompassing over 2,000 representatives from various political parties. The conference gave itself a legislative mandate and elected Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo as its chairman, along with Étienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba, leader of the UDPS, as prime minister. By the end of the year Mobutu had created a rival government with its own prime minister. The ensuing stalemate produced a compromise merger of the two governments into the High Council of Republic-Parliament of Transition (HCR-PT) in 1994, with Mobutu as head of state and Kengo Wa Dondo as prime minister. Although presidential and legislative elections were scheduled repeatedly over the next 2 years, they never took place.
By 1996, tensions from the neighboring Rwanda war and genocide had spilled over to Zaire: see History of Rwanda. Rwandan Hutu militia forces (Interahamwe), who had fled Rwanda following the ascension of a Tutsi-led government, had been using Hutu refugees camps in eastern Zaire as a basis for incursion against Rwanda. These Hutu militia forces soon allied with the Zairian armed forces (FAZ) to launch a campaign against Congolese ethnic Tutsis in eastern Zaire. In turn, these Tutsis formed a militia to defend themselves against attacks. When the Zairian government began to escalate its massacres in November 1996, the Tutsi militias erupted in rebellion against Mobutu.
The Tutsi militia was soon joined by various opposition groups and supported by several countries, including Rwanda and Uganda. This coalition, led by Laurent-Desire Kabila, became known as the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre (AFDL). The AFDL, now seeking the broader goal of ousting Mobutu, made significant military gains in early 1997. Following failed peace talks between Mobutu and Kabila in May 1997, Mobutu left the country, and Kabila marched unopposed to Kinshasa on May 20. Kabila named himself president, consolidated power around himself and the AFDL, and reverted the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Standards and abbreviations
In computing, Zaire's top level domain was ".zr". [1]