There is a possible breakthrough in negotiations between the weakening President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and rebel leader Laurent Kabila. Chris McGreal reports from Kinshasa
ZAIREAN President Mobutu Sese Seko this week opened the door to negotiation with the rebel army advancing from the east, but on terms it is almost certain to reject.
Mobutu proposed the creation of a negotiating committee two days after South Africa’s Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki, flew to Kinshasa and predicted a breakthrough in trying to arrange a ceasefire and negotiations to end the six- month civil war.
But the ailing Zairean leader’s plan for a committee with undefined powers to negotiate an end to the conflict bore the hallmarks of his well-tested tactic of appearing to make concessions while sowing confusion.
In a loosely worded statement read on national television, Mobutu did not specifically say the committee would be sanctioned to talk directly to the rebel Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire.
The alliance leader, Laurent Kabila, is in any case likely to reject the proposal because Mobutu plans to appoint a cross- section of Zairean political life to the committee. The rebels have demanded direct talks with the president or, if he is too sick from prostate cancer for protracted meetings, an envoy with full powers to negotiate on his behalf.
The statement added to the sense of chaos within the government after Mobutu forced his prime minister, Kengo wa Dondo, to resign on Monday on the heels of a parliamentary vote of no confidence. Parliament opened meetings on Tuesday to try and select a new prime minister for Mobutu’s approval.
The largest party is pushing the nomination of a former prime minister and long-time foe of the president, Etienne Tshisekedi, with a mandate to negotiate the formation of a new government with the rebels.
Expectations that Mobutu might agree to talks were raised by Mbeki’s visit to Kinshasa on Sunday.
He carried a letter from Nelson Mandela saying the rebel alliance has backed off its demand for face-to-face talks between Kabila and the Zairean president if he appoints an envoy.
But Mandela’s letter added that the rebels have also set new conditions.
Fearing that Mobutu is trying to buy time, Kabila is insisting that there can be only one round of negotiations and that the talks must be conclusive or abandoned. The key question of whether a ceasefire should precede negotiations is so far unresolved.
After the meeting with Zaire’s president, Mbeki said he expected “immediate movement” on the key issues of a ceasefire and negotiations.
“We are convinced in the immediate future steps will be taken practically to move this process forward toward a resolution,” he said.
Mbeki’s visit offered the first public sighting of Mobutu after his mysteriously clandestine return from cancer treatment in France last week.
Looking tired and thin, Zaire’s ailing president stepped slowly out of his sprawling riverside palace in his favoured leopard-skin hat to dispel rumours of his demise. And in a voice robbed of its power, he made a last grasp at keeping alive the myth perpetuated through his 32 years in power, and billions of dollars in the bank, that he is the man to save Zaire.
“I am called Mobutu. I came back not to look after Mobutu’s interests or fortunes as you write from time to time. I came to look after the higher interests of Zaire, that is to say our unity and our territorial integrity,” he told reporters.
It was the kind of declaration which once stirred Zaireans to believe in Mobutu’s claim to be the father of the nation. But with his regime evidently powerless to stop rebels who confidently predict sweeping into the capital within three months, Mobutu would appear to have little control over the course of events beyond the choice of negotiating himself out of power or quitting immediately.
The Zairean leader flew home from Nice last week after his latest bout of treatment for prostate cancer. But he refused to leave his plane until the airport had been cleared of spectators, including his own Cabinet and military leaders on hand to welcome him. The bizarre arrival fuelled speculation that Mobutu was on the brink of death.
Asked how he felt, Mobutu replied: “I am as you see me.”
Mbeki met the Zairean president at Camp Tshatshi, one of Mobutu’s sprawling residences in Kinshasa. The gates are decorated with young soldiers in shabby red colonial tunics and pillbox hats topped by plumes to match the peacocks wandering past the miniature golf course.
But the real security is provided by troops bristling with weaponry which might be the envy of soldiers on the front line if they cared to fight.
The army provokes little more than derision these days. But the men outside Mobutu’s palace are not too shamed to don sunglasses and strut their stuff until the time comes to turn and run from the rebels.
Mobutu’s options are not much better. There is no magical military solution for the regime.
The government is discredited and crumbling. Zaire’s president can agree to negotiate, resign or wait until the rebels are at the gates – if his own army does not get rid of him first.