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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

U.S. To Mobutu: Time’s Up Top Envoy Will Carry Message, Offer Of Help To Zaire President

Washington Post

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, was dispatched to Zaire to tell President Mobutu Sese Seko that the time has come to step down and that Washington will help arrange a dignified exit, diplomatic sources said Monday.

Richardson, who arrived Monday in the Zairian capital, Kinshasa, has been assigned to tell Mobutu that he should use the prostate cancer that is sapping his strength as an excuse to quit office voluntarily, the sources said. He should leave behind a representative to negotiate a peaceful transfer of power to a transitional authority, including rebels who have seized more than half the country and are headed toward Kinshasa, they added.

Richardson’s mission marked a clear escalation in the Clinton administration’s attempts to ease Mobutu from power. The longtime Zairian dictator, for years a U.S. Cold War ally, has not responded to earlier, less direct suggestions that he step aside when they were relayed by other governments.

Laurent Kabila, leader of the rebel forces pledged to oust Mobutu, has told the United States that he is prepared to allow Mobutu to depart peacefully, according to diplomatic sources. Richardson is trying to arrange a meeting between Mobutu and Kabila, probably late this week in Libreville, Gabon, to discuss terms of a handover that would spare Kinshasa a final battle or breakdown of law and order, officials said.

During the last six months, Kabila’s forces have thundered through eastern Zaire and now have Kinshasa in their sights. The Reuter news service reported that Mobutu’s soldiers have fled from the rebel advance on the provincial hub of Kikwit, 275 miles east of the capital. In Kinshasa, Zairian politicians said they believe some rebel combatants already have entered the town.

The level of urgency surrounding Richardson’s visit to Zaire also was accentuated by reports from Zairian officials that Angolan troops have entered southwestern Zaire in an apparent bid to cut off Matadi, the country’s port for seagoing ships. The port, 200 miles southwest of Kinshasa near the mouth of the Zaire River, is vital for resupply of the capital and Mobutu’s military.

Sources in Washington have confirmed that Angola is heavily involved on Kabila’s side, exacting vengeance for Mobutu’s years of support for Angolan rebels led by Jonas Savimbi.

Richardson, who has developed a reputation for creative diplomacy in difficult places such as North Korea, is “probably the only man in the Clinton administration who could talk Mobutu into leaving,” said a former U.S. envoy in the region.