/ 4 January 2000

DR CONGO REBEL LEADER IN SA

THE leader of the political opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Etienne Tshisekedi, held talks on Monday with expatriate Congolese groups in South Africa on one of his first trips outside the DRC in years. Tshisekedi, a long-time foe of the late Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko and his successor Laurent Kabila, fielded questions from his countrymen in a church hall in Berea in central Johannesburg. Tshisekedi, 67, who was repeatedly denied the right to leave the DRC by both Mobutu and Kabila, will receive medical treatment for a minor eye ailment while in South Africa.