Talks on Zaire Fail, Setting Stage for Attack on Capital

ABOARD THE SAS OUTENIQUA —  A last-chance effort to broker peace talks between warring sides in the seven-month Zairian civil war collapsed Wednesday night, setting the stage for a full-scale rebel assault on the capital, Kinshasa.

United Nations special envoy Mohamed Sahnoun said rebel leader Laurent Kabila had refused to attend a second and final round of face-to-face talks with the embattled Zairian president, Mobutu Sese Seko, aboard this South African naval ship.

“It’s a great disappointment for us as mediators,” a grim-faced Sahnoun told reporters in a shipboard briefing. “We worked very hard to organize this meeting.”

The desperate diplomatic campaign was aimed at crafting a peaceful transfer of power in Zaire and averting a rebel attack on the capital of Africa’s third-largest nation. But after Kabila’s refusal to participate, Sahnoun offered little hope that a peaceful resolution could still be found to “avoid a battle for Kinshasa with high casualties.”

“I would like to simply add, we will not give up,” he said. “We will work to avoid another humanitarian tragedy. There is already too much of that in Zaire.”

South African President Nelson Mandela, who was to host the talks, pleaded for a peaceful takeover in Zaire. “There should be no bloodshed in Kinshasa, no destruction of property, no looting,” he said gravely as he prepared to board his jet home late Wednesday night.

Sahnoun said the talks collapsed when Kabila insisted that the ship be moved away from the docks in Pointe-Noire, Congo, and into international waters because he feared for his security in Congo, one of the few African nations still friendly to Mobutu.

The unexpected demand was similar to those that delayed the first round of shipboard talks by several days earlier this month.

Mandela, who flew to Pointe-Noire early Wednesday and had repeatedly telephoned Mobutu and Kabila to try to bring them together, rejected Kabila’s demand because the rebel leader had agreed to the meeting by the dock and appeared to be stalling.

“There was a telephone call to President Mandela and [Kabila] requested that the ship should go to the high seas,” Sahnoun said. “And President Mandela reminded him he already had agreed to come to Pointe-Noire. President Mandela said the ship would not go to the high seas for the meeting. Therefore the meeting will not be held.”

Mandela, who spent the day behind closed doors in Pointe-Noire at the villa of Congo’s president, Pascal Lissouba, then invited Kabila to South Africa for talks, a South African official said.

Kabila spent the day in Cabinda, on the west coast of Angola. South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said Kabila was supposed to have flown to Soyo, another Angolan port farther south, but didn’t have enough fuel.

Mandela and South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki made a personal visit to Mobutu’s quarters, diplomatic sources said. The Zairian leader, who had flown to Pointe-Noire early Wednesday and spent the day with his advisors in a seaside villa, had to be roused from bed, and talks among the three lasted an hour, they reported.

Pahad said Mandela also consulted with numerous African leaders, as well as officials in Washington and Paris.

The long day had begun with cheerful predictions by South African officials aboard ship that significant progress was likely. At 5:30 p.m., Pahad still was insisting that “final talks” could begin today.

Sahnoun had signaled his doubts earlier in the afternoon, saying, “For the moment, we are waiting for Godot.” Pahad said Mobutu gave mediators an eight- to 10-page document, written in French, about 5 p.m. in response to previous diplomatic proposals to resolve the crisis.

“For some days we have been waiting for a response from the government,” Pahad said. “We will now translate it, discuss it and assess it.”

The failure of the talks added to the tension and fear already gripping Kinshasa. Kabila’s legions are fast closing in on the city, the final prize for his guerrilla army.

Mobutu, 67, has ruled Zaire as a despot for 32 years but now suffers from terminal prostate cancer. It was not immediately clear if he would try to return to Kinshasa today, as he had planned, or whether he could fly home before rebels seized the airport there.

In Kinshasa, which was virtually deserted Wednesday as residents observed a general strike, the collapse of the talks led to speculation that Mobutu’s generals might be preparing their own solution to the crisis. One scenario had it that with Mobutu now safely out of town, the Zairian armed forces would change sides, secure Kinshasa’s airport and help the rebels start landing personnel and equipment here.

The rebels are reported to have thousands of troops standing by in the captured towns of Kikwit and Kananga, which have airports. They are also reported to have access to aircraft from Angola, as well as the ability to hire or commandeer charters in the territory they control.

Until now, Mobutu’s generals have shown remarkable forbearance, loyally backing their president even as their troops have gone from defeat to humiliating defeat. Now, however, with the rebels poised to close in on the city, some observers think the time is right for Zaire’s generals to join the other side.

“The dangerous thing for Kinshasa would be if they tried to do something like that without the agreement of the [presidential guards],” said one Western observer, naming the elite military unit assigned to protect Mobutu.

Over the years, Mobutu has built a “coup-proof” military by breaking it into four independent branches, each of which can be played off the others.

Even in Kinshasa’s airport, one branch controls the runway, another controls the interior of the building, a third is responsible for planes and other individual assets, and the regular army keeps paratroopers in a camp across the street. All of these branches would have to agree to change sides at the same time for a coup to work.

The regular Zairian army is demoralized and expected by many to desert en masse as soon as the troops get the chance.

“The soldiers are afraid,” said Jose Feruzi, a reporter for a Kinshasa newspaper. “Some of them wear civilian clothes under their uniforms.”

Mobutu’s presidential guards, by contrast, recently were paid about $30 each--enough in this country’s disastrous economy to create a semblance of esprit de corps and, possibly, motivation to fight.

Meanwhile, Kinshasa’s residents Wednesday observed what they call a “dead city,” or general strike, to signal their vehement opposition to Mobutu. Traffic was light in the normally clogged streets, and people avoided walking for fear of harassment by ubiquitous plainclothes and uniformed soldiers.

“The ‘dead city’ shows that we’re no longer obeying the system,” said Feruzi. “It’s a sign that we no longer want Mobutu. We pray that this country will never have such a president again.”

Drogin reported from the Outeniqua and Walsh from Kinshasa.

* U.S. OFFER: Washington has pledged $10 million to entice rebels to hold elections, officials say. A17