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APRIL 3, 1997 AUGUSTA FOCUS
World / National View
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ZAIRE
U.N. hopes peace
talks will begin this
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weekend in S. Africa
UNITED NATIONS
(AP) Peace talks between representatives of
Zaire’s government and rebels threatening to
topple the regime are expected to begin in
South Africa by this weekend, a U.N. spokes
man said Monday.
Zairian television in the capital of Kinshasa
said the talks would begin Thursday, and that
the seven-person negotiating team represent
ing the Zairian government would include five
politicians, a lawyer and an army general.
Last week, the Zairian government of Presi
dent Mobutu Sese Seko abandoned its opposi
tion to talks and agreed during a summit of 15
Africanleaderstomeet with therebels. Nodate
was announced.
U.N.spokesman Fred Eckhard said the delay
in setting a date was due to problems in com
municating with rebel leader Laurent Kabila.
U.S. Secreiary of State Madeleine Albright
said Washington had not decided whether to
send a high-level representative to the talks.
“For now, we want to make sure the talks do
in fact take place with an active role for the
United Nations,” she told reporters after a
meeting with Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
“And we will have to consider what level emis
sary to send to it.”
U.N. envoy Mohamed Sahnoun, who is ex
pected to chair the talks, is in Cape Town,
South Africa, Eckhard said, presumably to
make the final arrangements.
The South African Press Association quoted
Foreign Ministry spokesman Pieter Swanepoel
as saying his government was in contact with
both parties and received the go-ahead to make
preparations for the talks. 2k :
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iilgllsll[EnzmcmnsßE bicker while
rebels advance on capital
I Rebels control eastern
regions of Zaire while the
government scrambles to
name a successor to Mobutu.
By Donna Bryson
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
KINSHASA, Zaire
Politicians promised Monday to reveal
Zaire’s new prime minister, but instead
managed only to open a window onto the
confusion and bickering that has para
lyzed the leadership of a country at war.
Members of parliament allied with
President Mobutu Sese Seko summoned
reporters to a conference room in
Kinshasa’s tiny legislative hall, which
like most public buildings in the capital
smells of dust, mold and neglect. In a
matter of moments, they told journalists,
the candidates for prime minister would
be announced.
But it soon became clear that no an
rouncement would be made. Opposition
politicians remained closeted in another
conference room. Mobutu supporters
wandered aimlessly in the lobby _ one
was heard complaining into his cellular
phone that he had not been offered a
Cabinet post.
An hour and a half later, Diomi
Ndongala, amember of the Mobutu camp
who had put janitors to work setting up
microphones and name tags in the con
ference room, had to admit there would
be no announcement.
“We can’t leave the country like this,”
he said.
By announcing that an agreement had
been reached, the Mobutu supporters may
have been trying to force the opposition
into reaching a resolution.
Opposition leader Boboliko Lokonga
said unspecified disputes were keeping
parliamentarians from settlingon a prime
minister.
t “But we know we must speed things
up,” he said.
~ Zaire, which has had 10 governments
’ since 1990, has been awaiting the an
' nouncement since last week, when Mobutu
‘accepted parliament’s vote to oust his
‘handpicked prime minister, Leon Kengo
'waDondo. According to the country’s tran
sitional constitution, the parties allied
‘against Mobutu nominate the prime min
iister subject to the president’s approval.
~ Kengo has been accused of mismanag
ing the war against rebels who now hold
most of eastern Zaire. Today, it seems no
one is in place to oversee the army or to
coordinate Kinshasa’s position at peace
talks expected to begin later this week.
Mobutu has prostate cancer and it’s un
clear whether he is still capable of govern
ing after nearly 32 years in power.
The leading candidate for prime minis
ter is Etienne Tshisekedi, a longtime
Mobutu opponent who already has served
as premier three times. Each time, he was
toppled after clashing with the president.
Local newspapers have named several
other opposition leaders believed to want
the premier post:
* Vincent de Paul Lunda Bululu, who
served briefly as prime minister after
Mobutu yielded to pressure to embark on
democratic reforms in 1990.
* Arthur Zaidi Ngoma, a former
UNESCO official.
* Thomas Kanza, considered a compro
mise candidate because he is close to
Mobutu.
The Zairian opposition has for years
been unable to unite behind a single leader,
leaving no one strong enough to challenge
the autocratic president.
Rebel leader Laurent Kabila has de
nounced all Kinshasa politicians, whether
supporters or opponents of Mobutu, as
puppets of the president.
Rwandan refugees
await food and their
fate in central Zaire
BY DIANNA CAKN
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
LULA, Zaire
The stench of human excrement,
sweat and disease hangs over this
portion of jungle, trapped under
the dense forest canopy.
Thousands of Rwandan refugees
of all ages huddle under makeshift
shelters clustered in camps south
of rebel-held Kisangani.
The exhausted people of Lula
camp, only 7 kilometers (4 miles)
south of the city, gathered up their
possessions Monday and started
to move 12 miles (19 kilometers)
further south, under orders from
the rebels.
The people at Lula covered more
than 300 miles in seven months
since they were forced into the
interior by Rwandan Hutu mili
tiamen retreating from the Zairian
rebelsthey were fighting. The refu
gees had fled their homeland in
1994 to escape retribution for a
Hutu-led massacre of Tutsis, only
to be forced out of their camps in
eastern Zaire during the rebellion.
Stretched out on a road behind
them for more than 25 miles are
tens of thousands more who fell
behind. Many will never catch up.
A man who arrived at mile 25
Saturday appeared no different
from thousands around him —
gaunt, tired and hungry.
He suddenly dropped his walk
ingstick at the side of the road and
folded his wasted frame onto the
hard ground. A grimace covered
his face as he waited to die.
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Not far down the road a woman -
with a festering leg lay on the’
ground, clasping a shrunken in
fant who clawed at hisblanket and
cried soundlessly. '
The woman placed a shriveled “
breast into the baby’s mouth to
calm him though no milk would
flow. 2
At Lula, some people appeared "
to have a little money with which -
they could buy bananas, green *
vegetables and beans from the
- outside the camp.
But a young woman sitting by .
the side of the road holding a tiny "
baby said she was waiting for food.
She had a small tin bowl which she
had been trying to sell so she could '
buy some food. But no one was !
buying. i
Under a rectangular shelter of '
bamboo and leaves inside Lula
camp, Thomas Ngaruchiya, 39, *
held his baby in his arms. His wife, '
Mirambaza, 38, tended another -
young child, running her fingers -
over a gaping sore on his chest and
stomach. "
a
Several other children sat qui
etly with them in the noon heat. i
The couple had five children of
their own in October when they 3
started out from Bukavu 375 miles;;
to the southeast. Along the way,’
the took in two orphaned children, -
but one died. !
“There is no hope,” said._
Ngaruchiya, whose own 5-year
old son starved to death this week. -
“I am hopeless. I don’t know if _
my other children will survive.”