Armed Forces of Zaire
The Armed Forces of Zaire (French: Forces Armées Zaïrois, or "FAZ" for short) is the name of Zaire's military. It consists of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and law enforcement and paramilitary organizations. President Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga is Supreme Commander of the FAZ. Former Army Chief of Staff General Donat Lieko Mahele serves as Minister of Defense and Veterans' Affairs.
While the armed forces' stated purpose is to defend Zaire against external threats, in reality its sole purpose is serving as an apparatus used to ensure the survival of the Mobutu regime and the curtailing or destruction of any real or perceived opponents of his regime. The armed forces, one of the main pillars of Mobutu's support, have a well-deserved reputation for lawlessness and brutality. They are accustomed to arbitrarily committing human rights abuses with complete impunity, killing dissidents, stoking up anarchic conditions to divert the populace's discontent from Mobutu's misrule, inciting ethnic tensions to "divide and rule" the opposition, and provoking lawlessness to discredit his enemies.
