MONDAY, 8.00AM:
ZAIRE’S rebels resumed their march on Kinshasa at the weekend, despite promising President Nelson Mandela that they would pause to allow negotiations to continue. The rebels suspect that Mobutu is using the lull in fighting to reinforce hs defences.
They are also enraged by an agreement between Mobutu and Central African presidents — his long-time supporters — that he hand transitional power over to the speaker of parliament.
Mobutu returned to Kinshasa at the weekend — having been embarrassed during his three days in Libreville by accusations that he had run away.
Parliament voted in a new speaker, Archbiship Laurent Monsengwo, who wields considerable influence in a deepy religious Catholic country. But the parliamentary opposition of Etienne Tshisekedi walked out before the vote, and the rebel leaders refuse to speak to the archbishop.
Rebel foreign minister Bizima Karaha said: “Mobutu is a devil and a trickster and he has used the talks to reinforce his troops, hiring in elements from Unita and Rwanda to consolidate his position in Kinshasa.” He added: “We shall now talk and fight, talk and fight.”