External Collusion with Kleptocracy: can Zaire recapture its Stolen Wealth?

For 28 years, Mobutu Sese Seko has carefully and thoughtfully refined his system for transforming the public resources of Zaire into private wealth, while using bribery, coercion and violence to thwart all movements for change. The consequences of his system, commonly known as ‘kleptocracy’ or government by theft, are well known: immiseration of the people; destruction of the nation's infrastructure; enrichment of Mobutu and his collaborators; the transformation of Zaire into the prime staging ground for foreign intervention against other African nations. This article will focus neither on the consequences of kleptocracy nor the growing opposition which, for the past three years, has aggressively but so far unsuccessfully challenged Mobutu's rule. It will instead examine questions of causation and culpability. It will identify some of the architects, beneficiaries and allies of kleptocracy; analyse the methods used for misdirecting Zaire's wealth, and catalogue the benefits Mobutu, his domestic associates...