Paul Webster in Paris
INTERNATIONAL efforts to get a reluctant Mobutu Sese Seko to return to Zaire from his Riviera villa increased this week when he was asked to co-operate with French plans for a multi-national force to protect refugees in eastern Zaire.
President Jacques Chirac is trying to persuade Zaire’s president, convalescing after surgery for prostate cancer, that he must go home to take advantage of a three- week truce by the Tutsi rebels in eastern Zaire and set up protected corridors to enable supplies to reach refugees.
But hopes that Mobutu would take a lead in settling the crisis received a setback right away: Zaire refused to attend a special meeting of African states in Nairobi on Tuesday to discuss the conflict.
Without Zaire’s participation, the meeting’s call for urgent deployment of a neutral force in eastern Zaire was weakened. The United States ambassador in Rwanda, Robert Gribbin, has also described military intervention as “useless”.
Rwanda – which backs the Tutsi rebels in eastern Zaire – also opposes foreign intervention.
Mobutu was apparently given a French visa on the understanding he would retake control of domestic affairs, but he has told officials that he needs a long recovery.