Zaire Talks Fail to Yield Pact as Rebels Fight On

Long-delayed peace talks Sunday between Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko and rebel leader Laurent Kabila failed to produce the anticipated results: Mobutu did not resign, and fighting did not stop.

Mobutu’s refusal to give up power after 32 years, despite seven months of military defeats for his army and the approach of a victorious rebel force now at his doorstep, means the insurgents will fight on, Kabila said after the meeting.

Although the face-to-face talks, put together by South African President Nelson Mandela and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson, were weeks in the making, the results were disappointing, diplomats said.

During discussions that lasted about 90 minutes, Mobutu apparently rejected the proposed agreement outlined to journalists before the meeting. That plan, according to U.S. and South African sources at the talks held in Congo, would have required Mobutu to step aside for reasons of health, appoint an interim president and then allow Kabila and his rebels to enter Kinshasa, the Zairian capital, in coordination with Mobutu’s army.

Instead, both leaders kept to previously stated positions.

According to U.N. special envoy Mohamed Sahnoun, Mobutu offered to hold elections in which he would not run and then to hand over power to an elected successor.

The proposal, similar to plans that Mobutu has floated before, was a nonstarter for Kabila. The rebel leader clung to his demand that Mobutu resign immediately--or be driven from power.

A European diplomat in Zaire expressed surprise at Mobutu’s stance, especially in light of expectations that he was ready to accept military reality after a frank meeting last week with Richardson, who was sent to Zaire by President Clinton to help solve the crisis.

“It looks as if he [Mobutu] changed his mind,” the diplomat said. “Maybe someone whispered to him on the gangplank: ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it.’ ”

Residents of Kinshasa, who are both eager for Mobutu to be toppled and fearful of violence if Kabila’s troops oust him by force, also were disappointed. Some people in the lower-class Matonge district poured into the streets Sunday afternoon, wrongly believing that Mobutu had agreed with Kabila on a negotiated departure.

“Everybody started to dance,” reported one 31-year-old teacher from the area. But soldiers came running and fired shots to scatter the revelers, he said.

Meanwhile, the rebel advance continued unabated. By Sunday, rebels had taken the town of Mbanza-Ngungu, about 60 miles southwest of Kinshasa, according to one unofficial report. If confirmed, that would mean the rebels control the road connecting Kinshasa and Zaire’s chief ocean port city, Matadi.

The report, from a mining company official, appeared to corroborate accounts that rebel forces have been moving northward from the Angolan border to cut off Kinshasa from the west.

Zaire has claimed the quick pace of the rebels’ recent advance has been due in part to help from Angola, which is supporting Kabila in an apparent payback to Mobutu for years of support he gave anti-government Angolan rebels.

In Washington, the State Department appeared to give credence last week to such accusations, publicly calling on the Angolans to “end their military involvement” and support a negotiated settlement.

East of the capital, the rebels were only 90 miles away Sunday near the town of Kenge, a diplomatic source said. The source said that Kenge, which the rebels said they captured Saturday, is most likely the base from which they will launch their final attack on Kinshasa in coming days if no diplomatic agreement is reached.

The South African hosts struggled to put the best face on the Sunday meeting, held on the South African naval vessel Outeniqua moored in Pointe-Noire, a Congolese port. The main cause for optimism was a promise by Mobutu and Kabila to meet again in the same place for more talks within 10 days. Mandela said the second round would seek to “narrow the gap between the two parties.”

But pressed by reporters, Mandela admitted that the fighting would not end. “ ‘Cease-fire’ is not a word in his vocabulary,” Mandela said of Kabila.

Kabila confirmed that he had made no promises to rein in his troops.

“Mobutu has asked me to give him eight days while he considers our demand to resign,” he told the Reuters news agency. “I have agreed to that request, and we shall meet again on this same ship within the next eight days. But I have told him and the mediators that there will be no cease-fire while he considers our demands.”

A South African official said after the meeting that Mobutu was still considering handing over power soon to a “transitional authority.” But another source close to the meeting disputed that assertion, saying there was no such agreement.

The meeting gave fresh evidence of the failing health of Mobutu, who is 66 years old and has advanced prostate cancer. He was unable to mount steps onto the ship, his doctors ruled out a helicopter ride to the vessel, and they said the ship should not leave the harbor with him on board during the talks.

Mobutu arrived Sunday leaning on a cane and supported on one side by his wife, Bobi Ladawa. She refused to leave Mobutu’s side until he was safely aboard, squeezing with him onto a one-person elevator that was set up dockside expressly to raise Mobutu onto the deck.

The president, who has been cloistered at a military base outside Kinshasa, flew to the talks Friday with about 50 aides and family members. They remained in Pointe-Noire on Sunday night, and no one seemed to know when they might return to Zaire. Kabila flew Sunday to Luanda, Angola.