Kabila, Laurent-Desire

▪ 2002

      Congolese political leader (b. Nov. 27, 1939, Jadotville, Katanga province, Belgian Congo—confirmed dead on Jan. 18, 2001, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC; formerly Zaire]), was president of the DRC from 1997 until his death. In 1960, after studying in France and Tanzania, Kabila became a youth leader in a political party allied to Congo's first postindependence prime minister, Marxist-Maoist Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba was deposed in 1961 by Mobutu Sese Seko and later killed. Assisted for a time in 1964 by guerrilla leader Che Guevara, Kabila helped Lumumba supporters lead a revolt, but it was eventually suppressed in 1965 by the Congolese army led by Mobutu. Kabila then founded (1967) the People's Revolutionary Party, which established a Marxist territory in the Kivu region of eastern Zaire and managed to sustain itself through gold mining and ivory trading. When that enterprise came to an end during the 1980s, he ran a business selling gold in Dar es Salaam, Tanz., until he resurfaced in Zaire in 1996 as leader of the newly formed Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire. Supported by a nation outraged by the dictatorial leadership of Mobutu, Kabila rallied forces consisting mostly of Tutsi from eastern Zaire. Marching west toward the capital city of Kinshasa, Kabila's troops forced Mobutu to flee the country before their arrival. On May 17, 1997, Kabila installed himself as head of state. He also rejected the name Zaire, which Mobutu had given the country in 1971, and reverted its name to the DRC. Kabila was able to secure regional support, and his plan to revive the economy was welcomed both internationally and at home. Humanitarian organizations, however, soon voiced reservations. Reportedly, Kabila's troops had been responsible for the murder of thousands of Hutu refugees who had fled Rwanda into Zaire in 1994; Kabila ignored UN demands for an inquiry into the massacre. Resorting to many of the same dictatorial methods as his predecessor, Kabila refused to hold new elections, banned political parties, imprisoned journalists and human rights workers, and invited members of his family into the government. His years in office were largely consumed by a fierce conflict in the eastern part of the country between government forces and rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda. Kabila was shot dead in the presidential mansion, allegedly by one of his bodyguards.

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