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Zaire FOREIGN POLICY
Relations with the West
Zairian political scientist Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja
argues
that "the United States eventually replaced Belgium as the
major
arbiter of Zaire's destiny, but continues to deal with
Zairian
affairs within a multilateral strategy of imperialism in
which
Belgium and France are its key partners." For Crawford
Young, in
contrast, Mobutu's survival has been due in large measure
to his
success in multiplying external patrons. These two views,
only
partly contradictory, illuminate two aspects of the
foreign
relations of Mobutu's Zaire, which is both dependent and
uncontrollable.
The Mobutu regime has long enjoyed, and is perceived as
depending on, the support of Western powers: first
Belgium, then
also France, and the United States. Because of its size,
mineral
wealth, and strategic location, Mobutu's Zaire was able to
capitalize on Cold War tensions to garner support from the
West. In
the interest of maintaining stability in Central Africa
and in
exchange for his support for their foreign policy goals in
Angola,
Western powers rewarded Mobutu with substantial economic
and
military assistance and for the most part maintained
silence in the
face of growing evidence of the abuses of his regime. In
the early
1990s, however, with Zaire facing severe internal turmoil,
and with
the ending of the Cold War superpower rivalry in Africa
between the
United States and the former Soviet Union, the country's
main
Western allies, reversing earlier positions, have put
pressure on
Mobutu to improve his human rights record and to institute
multiparty democracy.
Data as of December 1993
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