NationStates Jolt Archive

To: His Majesty Dr. Suleiman Al Bashir II
From: President Mobutu Sese Seko

Your Majesty,

We have never met, but I feel we have much we can gain from each other. Each of us has things the other wants and needs. Zaire is rife with diamonds, gold, uranium, cobalt, and coltan: your nation has abundant oil. Moreover, we share a common border, and thus share a great interest in securing and maintaining regional peace. I wanted to meet with you, to see if we could work out a mutually beneficial bargain. I am willing to grant Ottoman companies concessions, with complete tax-exemption and other privileges, in return for discounted oil, military hardware, and training for the DSP and SNIP. We can also work out a mutual defense pact and perhaps other agreements. I would be honored to meet with you at my palace in Gbadolite to discuss this and other issues.

To: President Mobutu Sese Seko
From: Sultan Suleiman Al Bashir II

Dear Sir,

It will be a great honor to meet you face to face; I have heard many fine things about your treatment of the Muslims within your highly regarded nation. I shall make arrangements to come to your nation as soon as possible.

Signed

Sultan Suleiman Al Bashir II

"Excellent! I will be most pleased to welcome you to Zaire as my distinguished and honored guest. I predict that this will be a mutually satisfactory and profitable meeting. Please come whenever you wish."

--Mobutu Sese Seko--

bump

The Sultan Plane landed in the Gbadolite airport, and Sultan descended from the stairway and made his way to greet the President Seko and when he reached the President and he said in French

“Its pleasure to meet you face to face, President Seko!”

President Mobutu, dressed in well-pressed military attire, stepped forward with a welcoming smile and gave Bashir a firm handshake. "Welcome to the Republic of Zaire, Your Excellency," he said, in flawless, unaccented French. Two rows of DSP soldiers, lined up in perfect formation, saluted Bashir as he passed by them. Mobutu led Bashir to a bulletproof limousine. To Bashir's surprise, the town (or small city, rather) of Gbadolite was highly developed: the roads were well paved; high-quality healthcare was readily available; infrastructure was in top condition; jobs were plentiful; poverty was almost non-existent; the electricity and running water were reliable; and sanitation was superb. This was the one city in all of Zaire that had these amenities, and this was due to the extensive effort and resources the Guide had put to use developing it into a modern community; as his ancestral home, it had great importance to him, and he did not want it to be a hovel as the rest of the country was. Were Bashir to visit any other Zairian city, he would encounter deplorable, pot-holed roads; nightmarish traffic; rampant crime; a total absence of sanitation; run-down infrastructure; constant blackouts; rare or non-existent potable water; extreme shortages of almost everything; frequent roadblocks manned by bribe-thirsty police and soldiers; and never-ending poverty and beggars.

The limousine proceeded smoothly down the road, passing several well-tended plantations and agricultural cooperatives worked by content, hard-working peasants. After a relatively short but leisurely drive, they reached Mobutu's main palace, situated in the heart of the equatorial forest.