Like a Roman emperor at the Colosseum, Zaïre's President Mobutu Sese Seko strutted into Kinshasa's 20th of May Stadium last week to the cheers of 60,000 of his countrymen, many of whom had just snake-danced through the streets of the capital. Waving an elaborately carved cane, he pointed contemptuously at a pair of bedraggled, badly wounded prisonersthe first, apparently, to have been captured by government forces in nearly two months of fighting against invaders in Shaba province (TIME, April 25). Mobutu's gestures brought cries of "Mort, mort," (Death, death) from the crowd. Looking as hapless as Christians facing an...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
