While President Mobutu celebrated the first anniversary of his military regime in the Congo last week, everyone showed a special interest in his highest-ranking official guest, King Ntare V, 19, of neighboring Burundi. At a round of parties, guests wondered openly how the shy boy King would fare in Maryland-sized, blood-torn Burundi, from which he only last July ousted his own royal father.
Suddenly they had their answer. Ntare's Prime Minister Michel Micombero, 26, who had supervised Ntare's overthrow of his dad, announced that he had decided to chuck the monarchy altogether and rule the country himself. Fear immediately arose among...