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Letter to the Editor, Kilkenny Voice, 14th September 2007
Dear Editor,
The Swiss Government's announcement that they are releasing some $6.6 million from the account of the late dictator of Zaire/Congo, Mobutu Sese Seko, is a conundrum.
During the 32 years of his kleptocratic rule, Mobutu plundered the public sector, siphoning up to 50% of Zaire's capital budget as well as hundreds of millions in export revenues.
While his people died of hunger and disease, he also helped himself to almost 40% of a $12 billion aid budget contributed over his years in power.
So why has it taken the Swiss government so long to offer to repay some of this money and why such a paltry figure? Is corruption now so endemic that we allow huge amounts of cash to be siphoned off and do nothing about it?
We are not talking about small change here – we are talking about billions of dollars that could change the lives of millions of improvised Congolese; yet it has disappeared, apparently unnoticed, into the bottomless hole that is corruption, without anybody batting an eyelid.
Surely at the very least the International Community must now take control and ensure that any monies refunded are not given to the Government of Congo, which is itself corrupt, but to the people who were robbed by Mobutu in the first place.
Yours etc,
John O'Shea,
GOAL,
PO Box 19,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
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