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TIME: Almanac 1990s
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Time_Almanac_1990s_SoftKey_1994.iso
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02089914.000
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1994-03-25
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<text id=93TT2431>
<title>
Feb. 08, 1993: Tender into Tinder
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
Feb. 08, 1993 Cyberpunk
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
THE WEEK
WORLD, Page 20
Tender into Tinder
</hdr>
<body>
<p>A bank note issued by Zaire's Mobutu touches off military rioting
</p>
<p> The spark this time was a new bank note that testified by its
denomination alone to decades of misrule in Zaire: 5 million
zaires, valued at a purported $2. The bill was floated by the
country's long-ruling and long-embattled dictator Mobutu Sese
Seko--and was promptly declared worthless by his rival in a
power standoff, transitional Premier Etienne Tshisekedi. Most
merchants refused to accept the disputed tender. When Zairian
soldiers were paid with it, they went on an armed rampage,
looting shops and the homes of several thousand Europeans who
live in the former Belgian colony.
</p>
<p> As many as 50 civilians were killed in the violence,
including at least seven foreigners. Among them: French
Ambassador Philippe Bernard, 61, who apparently died in a
machine-gun attack on his embassy as he watched the
disturbances. On Friday, Paris and Brussels dispatched a
combined force of 700 troops to the region to protect and
possibly evacuate their nationals.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>