THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701260054
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 167 lines
While Pat Robertson lost millions in his diamond-mining venture, Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko may have come out ahead as a result of their association. For Robertson, building a relationship with Mobutu led to mining concessions and other business opportunities in Zaire. But the Virginia Beach-based televangelist has shut down his for-profit company amid a sea of red ink.
Mobutu, on the other hand, has sought to parlay his connection with Robertson into valuable political support as his embattled regime struggles to hold onto power.
That strategy was never more evident than in early 1992.
Mobutu, who had ruled Zaire with an iron fist since coming to power through civil war with the CIA's help in 1965, was facing massive popular pressure for democratization.
He had thrown repeated obstacles in the way of a national conference called to move the country toward democracy in 1991.
On Feb. 16, 1992, a Sunday, hundreds of thousands of Christians poured into the streets of Kinshasa, the Zairian capital, for a peaceful pro-democracy rally after church services to demand resumption of the conference.
It was the biggest political demonstration in Zaire since independence from Belgium in 1960.
The gathering prompted a bloody response. Mobutu's soldiers gunned down scores of the demonstrators, many still carrying their hymnals and prayer books.
Amnesty International, the worldwide human rights organization, estimated the number of deaths at 42, but John Metzel believes the total might have been as high as 250.
Metzel, son of a retired Presbyterian missionary to Zaire, is manager of the Zaire Educational Council, a Washington-based lobby.
``We have eyewitnesses who saw truckloads of bodies being carried away on that day,'' Metzel said.
``And what does Mobutu do? He calls in Pat Robertson. In less than three weeks, Mr. Robertson was on national television embracing Mobutu, calling him a fine Christian and a democrat.''
Criticism of Robertson's involvement in Zaire generally centers on two themes: that he has sought to exploit a desperately poor country with for-profit ventures, and that his embrace of Mobutu has helped legitimize the dictator in the eyes of the world.
``Many Christians here were aware that this trip was planned and wrote to Pat Robertson, pleading with his staff, trying to get through to him and urge him not to go, not to allow Mobutu to use him in this way, and he would hear none of it,'' Metzel said. ``That more than anything was an example of his total disregard for the welfare of the people of Zaire in pursuit of his own selfish interests.''
The U.S. State Department also tried to discourage Robertson from making the 1992 trip to avoid any suggestion of U.S. support for Mobutu, it was reported shortly afterward by several U.S. religious publications.
Robertson declined to be interviewed personally on his dealings in Zaire but answered some questions through a spokesman.
Kalala M. Kalao, a Zairian journalist who fled to the United States in 1993 after being arrested for coverage deemed unfriendly by the Mobutu regime, said in an interview that Mobutu flaunted his relationship with Robertson because he needed a Christian leader's support after the Kinshasa massacre.
Robertson's appearance with the dictator in March 1992 was one of many the broadcaster has made on Zairian state TV, which is tightly controlled by the regime, he said.
Kalao described Robertson's appearance this way: ``He went on TV and said to the people of Zaire: You don't have to worry about the political situation, about the Mobutu regime . . . because God loves your country, he has blessed your country. Everything will change. You only have to care about the kingdom of God. . . . Mobutu is a good man; he got his power from God.''
Bill Simmons, a Presbyterian missionary in Zaire, saw the 1992 broadcast.
``They played it over and over on TV in Kinshasa,'' Simmons said. ``They seemed to have edited it down so that anything Robertson said that was good was just repeated over and over, and may have even been taken out of context. It's hard to say. The way it was chopped up, it was really meant so that this American evangelist would seem favorable to the regime.''
Mobutu returned to Zaire in December from his chateau on the French Riviera, where he had been recuperating from prostate cancer surgery.
Less than a month later, he went back to France with no explanation, prompting speculation that he may plan to remain an absentee ruler.
He now faces one of the most serious threats of his three-decade rule: an armed rebellion that has sent his troops packing from a string of towns in the eastern part of the country.
The rebellion has given Mobutu's foes, even those who have eschewed violence in the past, reason to hope that his days may be numbered.
At a rally in Washington last month, Zairian expatriates representing several pro-democracy groups urged the West not to impede the insurgency.
``Mobutu has absolutely no support from the Zairian people,'' said Mwana Mawampanga, a faculty member at the University of Kentucky and a board member of the All North America Conference on Zaire. ``The United States should let the freedom fighters continue their march all the way to Kinshasa.
``We are not bloodthirsty people. Zairians are peace-loving people. But enough is enough.''
A statement issued by the pro-democracy activists said in part: ``All past and present beneficiaries of the criminal Mobutu regime are put on notice to stand aside while the Zairian people determine the outcome of the current crisis.''
They made it clear that they consider Robertson one of those beneficiaries.
``We don't want Pat Robertson anywhere close to Zaire,'' said Francois Muyumba, a professor at Indiana State University. ``He can stay out of it and preach in the Soviet Union if he needs to, or Eastern Europe, but leave the Zairians alone.''
Etiene Bote-Tshiek, a Zairian who now works for the Presbyterian Center of Eastern Virginia in Portsmouth to foster partnership projects with churches in Zaire, first became aware of Robertson in the early 1990s.
``I heard of this eminent evangelist from the United States who was visiting the president of Zaire,'' Bote-Tshiek said in an interview. ``He was given publicity by the only political party in the country - only the dictator's political party has access to the media. . . .
``They gave it to this man because he had a message of support for the dictator. His message was: God has created this man for you; you've got to be obedient to him.''
When Robertson visited Zaire, Bote-Tshiek said, he was given the kind of reception normally reserved for heads of state: a red-carpet welcome at the airport and a motorcade to his hotel with an escort of civil guards.
Robertson still has access to Zairian media. His Christian Broadcasting Network recently aired a weeklong evangelistic media blitz on prime-time TV there.
Robertson is a latecomer to Christian evangelism in Zaire, Bote-Tshiek pointed out. The nation was already about 90 percent Christian, he said, and Robertson has undermined the work of his predecessors ``by linking himself to the forces of dictatorship and militarization.''
On a visit to Zaire last January, Bote-Tshiek said, he met with a friend, a former banker, who had been working for Robertson's company but had become disillusioned and quit.
``He lost confidence in what he was doing,'' Bote-Tshiek said. ``He said Robertson was using the Bible to exploit the people of Zaire.''
It is welcome news that Robertson has ceased his business operations in Zaire, say his critics. But they want nothing less than for him to renounce his support of Mobutu.
``If he has pulled out, thanks be to God,'' Bote-Tshiek said. ``But has he ended his support for the man who is today destroying Zaire? There is a crisis in Zaire today. What kind of message is the reverend giving to Mobutu?''
That sentiment was echoed by Lamar Williamson, a retired professor of biblical studies in Montreat, N.C. Williamson and his wife did five tours of duty as Presbyterian missionaries in Zaire.
``We are convinced that there will be no real hope for improvement in Zaire until Mr. Mobutu is permanently out of the country or out of the picture,'' Williamson said. ``He has systematically, since 1990, thwarted every effort toward democratic change, and we believe that he will continue to do so as long as there's a breath in his body - and that Pat Robertson's failure to realize that is a major tragedy.''
Robertson declined through a spokeswoman to respond specifically to the criticism by Mobutu's pro-democracy foes.
Robertson has played down his support for Mobutu since the spring of 1995, when he appeared alongside the dictator in Kinshasa and made a public plea that the United States lift the travel restrictions it had placed on him. Mobutu was barred from the United States because he was seen as impeding his country's transition to democracy.
But the travel ban still stands.
Gene Kapp, a Robertson spokesman, said his boss has worked with Mobutu to ensure the success of his evangelistic and humanitarian efforts but does not involve himself in the country's internal politics.
That's easier said than done, said James Bullington, a former U.S. ambassador to Zaire's neighbor, Burundi. Bullington now heads the Center for Global Business and Executive Education at Old Dominion University.
``There's no such thing as a purely humanitarian operation in that part of the world,'' Bullington said. ``It inevitably gets involved in politics, because you've got to support one group of people who are hostile to another.''
Williamson, the retired missionary, agreed, saying, ``Anyone who thinks he can deal with Zaire in any fashion without political implications is sadly deceived.'' MEMO: Main article is on page A1.