Zaire Opponents Face Each Other For First Talks

With a hesitant handshake and words of peace, negotiators from the two warring sides in Zaire opened their first face-to-face negotiations here Saturday.

Mediators hope the two sides will agree to a cease-fire and set a formula for the governance of the chaotic Central African republic, steps that could involve direct talks between Zaire’s ailing President Mobutu Sese Seko and rebel leader Laurent-Desire Kabila.

Kabila’s rebel forces have seized control of a quarter of the country in six months and are now heading toward Lumumbashi, Zaire’s second largest city.

They were reported Saturday to have entered the diamond capital of Mbuji Mayi, striking another blow against the 31-year-old rule of Mobutu.

The venue for the talks is Pretoria’s Union Building, the hilltop seat of government and the site of the breakthrough negotiations to end the bloody struggle against apartheid.

Zaire Foreign Minister Gerard Kamanda wa Kamanda, who is heading the government delegation, said in an opening statement that: “We would also like to see during these negotiations that you would help us create the conditions for the progress and development of our country, which cannot be done without democracy and freedom.”

Bizima Karaha, the chief rebel negotiator, responded by saying “these brothers of ours have realized for the first time that they can’t make it with mercenaries and genocide. They can only make it with us. Now we are not talking war, we are talking peace.”

But the rebels also seemed unwilling to compromise, and government negotiators stared stonily ahead when rebels said: “We want freedom, and we shall never negotiate that.”