UNDATED. Sept 8. He was the ultimate African despot, a Cold War relic in a leopard skin hat who lived like a king while leading his potentially magnificent country down a ruinous path, reports AP

In the end. his excesses ruined him. and former Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko died in exile Sunday in Morocco with neither a title nor a country

The fall from supreme autocrat to displaced dictator was swifter than anyone — certainly Mobutu himself — could have imagined. After an eight-month sweep that shed harsh light on Mobutu s pathetic army and Zairians' lack of loyalty toward their president, rebel chief' Laurent Kabila seized power in May and ended a nearly 32 year reign strewn with broken promises and bloody revolts.

Joseph-Desire Mobutu's rule began with a military coup November 24. 1965. five years after the mineral-blessed colossus in the heart of the continent gained Independence from Belgium.

Then a colonel and the army chief of staff. Mobutu had earned his soldiers' loyalty by building up the military forces and crushing post-Independent secessionist revolts that grew to encompass nearly half the country. The country, known as the Congo, was renamed Zaire.

The coup was welcomed by Zairians weary of their long-bickering civilian government and by the west, always on the lookout for new leaders to counter Soviet influence in Africa. The pro-western Mobutu promised democracy and a quick return to civilian rule.

.Instead, fie declared himself . head df state, founded the Popular Revolutionary Movement party, banned all other political parties, and embarked on a pursuit of absolute power. To cement his dictatorship and keep potential rivals at bay. senior politicians from the previous government were appointed to overseas diplomatic posts, where most were then accused of anti-Mobutu activities and dismissed or arrested.

Powerful opponents who remained in Zaire eventually fled into exile or were imprisoned or publicly executed after

sham I rials. Mobutu co-opted those who remained, seducing them with gifts of limousines and luxurious villas and entwining them in his net of corruption.

Mobutu sought to shake off the remnants of colonial rule with a fierce policy of "Zairianization. which included nationalisation of mining and other major industries: ordering all government workers and ministers to wear Maostyle Jackets; and outlawing Christian names. Donning his trademark leopard-skin cap. he changed his own Christian surnames to Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga, which loosely means: "The all-powerful warrior who. because of his endurance and inflexible will to win. will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake '"

In a 1980 speech. Mobutu said he would never authorize another political party, dashing any hopes of allowing Zaire to become a democracy.

The last presidential elections were held in July 1984. with Mobutu the sole candidate. He was re-elected to a further seven-year term by 99 per cent of the vote.

Through it all. Mobutu maintained Western support because of the region’s strategic Importance as a Cold War battlefield. In return for arms and aid. he allowed the Untied States to use Zaire as a conduit for sending arms to rebels fighting Angola's Soviet-backed government.

But as the Cold War waned, so too did Mobutu s glory days.

The country's deteriorating economic situation and refusal to respond to pro-democracy sentiments sweeping the continent fueled civilian protests and military riots in 1991 that required French and Belgian Intervention to crush Another such uprising in 1993 killed hundreds of civilians in the capital, including the French ambassador.

As the former Soviet bloc began competing for Western aid, money to Zaire dried up, with the United States, France, Belgium and the European Union suspending military and financial assistance to protest corruption and human rights abuses.

After the 1991 riots. France's secretary of state for humanitarian affairs. Bernard Kouchner, referred to Mobutu as a "walking bank account tn a leopard-skin hat" and challenged him to spend some of his personal fortune — most of it allegedly stolen from state coffers — to feed his peopfe.

, , Wohutu denied stealing apy-, thing. "No. I have a clear conscience. I am an honest man. 1 have not pocketed one dollar of the people's money,” he said. Insisting his wealth was no more than 5 million dollars, far less than the 5 billion dollars often estimated.

As neighbouring countries traded one-party rule for democracy, Mobutu hung on with promises of reform. Political opposition and public Impatience were growing, however, and they snowballed with Laurent Kabila's bold military incursion into eastern Zaire in September 1996.