President’s Illness Has Zairians On Edge French And Belgian Troops Prepare To Quell Possible Coup

When residents in the neighborhood of Masina learned President Mobutu was gravely ill in Switzerland, they rejoiced.

After 31 years of political oppression and broken promises, they thought, perhaps Mobutu Sese Seko had finally met an opponent that could take him down.

Several days later, that joy turned to jitters when Swiss doctors reported Mobutu was convalescing comfortably in a plush hotel after surgery for prostate cancer.

How long would he be gone, and would his prolonged absence provide yet another excuse to delay presidential elections promised next year? If he wasn’t going to die quickly, they reasoned, better he recover quickly and return to control his boiling pot of a nation.

“They’re saying here about Mobutu that his days are not yet numbered,” said Ndamvu Nzuzu, a newspaper vendor in the neighborhood crammed with people from the central Kasai provinces, a hub of political opposition where Mobutu’s name is spoken with jeers. “Yet all we hear from abroad is not reassuring. Why has he prolonged his stay if he’s recovered?”

The daily “Le Soft” newspaper reported Monday that French and Belgian troops in Zaire had been put on high alert to quell possible uprisings by unpaid soldiers or opposition groups in Mobutu’s absence. The Zairian army last week publicly pledged its allegiance to Mobutu to quell rumors of an impending coup. There has been a strong military presence on the streets of the capital.

Mobutu, 66, arrived in Switzerland on Aug. 15 and had surgery at Lausanne’s University Hospital last month. He is staying at Hotel Beau Rivage in Lausanne and making regular visits to the hospital.

Today, Zaire’s prime minister, Leon Kengo wa Dondo, said Mobutu’s recovery was going well and he would return to Zaire next month. He also discounted reports Mobutu’s illness would be used as a pretext to delay elections.

“The calender will be respected,” Kengo said. “The health of the president is in no way an obstacle to the organization of the elections.”

Mobutu - who took power in a 1965 coup with strong backing from the United States, which then used the country to spy on its communist neighbors - has already postponed elections three times since declaring a transition to democracy in 1990.