LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Congo: Joseph Mobutu
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The Congo was in turmoil in many places. In the midst of it, on 5 September, president Joseph Kasavubu suddenly dismissed Lumumba as prime minister-a step of very debatable legality, taken with much American encouragement and assistance, as Kasavubu "sat at the feet of the CIA men". The action was taken, said the Church committee later, "despite the strong support for Lumumba in the Congolese Parliament.
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Congo (Zaire) became independent from Belgium in 1960 when the head of state, Joseph Kasavubu, dismissed the prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. Col. Joseph Mobutu took over the government. Thirty years after independence Congo (Zaire) still bears the imprint of its colonial past. Behind the omnipresent apparatus of control forged by President Mobutu Sese Seko in 1965 may be detected the enduring influence of King Leopold II of Belgium. The import of different institutions, policies, and culture from the West has deeply affected Congo (Zaire). However, traditions are maintained by different peoples with different beliefs, loyalties, and tensions.
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The problems in North Kivu stem from failures of the Congo peace process on army integration, economic governance and transitional justice. During the second half of the political transition – which formally ended with the election of President Joseph Kabila and a new legislature in 2006 – a policy of containment, appeasement, and international emphasis on the holding of elections cooled tensions but left their causes unaffected. The province remained in effect split into two pieces, with Masisi and Rutshuru territories caught in a cold war between dissidents from the former Rwandan-backed rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), and the national army (FARDC). Little progress was made on disarmament and reintegration of Mai Mai militias or repatriation of the Rwandan Hutu (FDLR) rebels. The illegal exploitation of natural resources continued unabated as all communities armed, animated by deep mutual resentments over land security, mass human rights abuses during the war and control of natural resources.
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On July 14, the UN Security Council voted to send a force to the Congo to help establish order; the force was not allowed to intervene in internal affairs... and could not act against the Katangan secession. Therefore, Lumumba turned to the USSR for help against Katanga, but on Sept. 5 he was dismissed as prime minister by Kasavubu. On Sept. 14, Col. Joseph Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko), the head of the army, seized power and dismissed Kasavubu. On Dec. 1, Lumumba, who probably had the largest national following of any Congo politician, was arrested by the army; he was murdered while allegedly trying to escape imprisonment in Katanga in mid-Feb., 1961.
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Around this time, Che Guevara arrived in the Congo. Che saw himself as serving as a military assistant to young Laurent-Désiré Kabila, a leader who would eventually come to power 30 years later. In Che's opinion, his adventure in the Congo was a fiasco, and he was eventually forced to return to Cuba. Kabila, thirty years later, would lead a military campaign to oust Mobutu.
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Joseph Mobutu