Zaire Rebels Say Key Town Ready To Fall Government Troops Loot, Flee Regional Capital, Source Says

Zairian rebels intent on ousting longtime ruler Mobutu Sese Seko said Friday they were poised to take the key town of Kindu, prompting foreign relief workers to pull out of the region.

“I can tell you that Kindu will fall in our hands within 48 hours from now,” Mbui Shikomba, a rebel spokesman in Tanzania, told the private Radio One.

Kindu, capital of eastern Maniema region, is 250 miles south of the country’s third-largest city of Kisangani, which the government army is using as the staging ground for its offensive against the rebels.

A well-placed regional source said Friday that Kindu already had fallen to the rebels and about 2,000 Zairian government soldiers fled the town after extensive looting. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the rebels were reported to have reached Bafwaboli, 60 miles east of Kisangani.

It was impossible to confirm the reports.

Zaire’s Defense Ministry denied Kindu was near falling Friday, saying government forces had pushed the rebels 30 miles away from the city, where one of three government-controlled airports in the region is located.

“We have blocked the advance by the rebels,” said Defense Minister Likulia Bolongo. “With our efforts, we are now preparing an offensive toward Kalima,” about 45 miles east of Kindu. “In Kindu, the situation has been stabilized.”

Bolongo said the army controlled the strategic bridge at Elala, between Kindu and rebel-held Kalima.

Government claims of victories over the rebels have proven to be false or exaggerated in the past.

A foreign diplomat in the region dismissed Friday’s government claim. The diplomat, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said there has been little actual fighting between rebels and Zairian troops. Instead, he said, when rebels near their target, Zairian troops will loot it, burn it and run away.

Meanwhile, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees’ spokesman in Rwanda, Paul Stromberg, said 22 foreign staff were flown out of the Tingi-Tingi refugee camp on Friday.

Refugee workers have feared all week the rebels would attack the 160,000 mostly Rwandan Hutu refugees in the camp, about 100 miles north of Kindu.

Rebel leader Laurent Kabila has accused Zaire’s government of arming former Rwandan Hutu soldiers and militiamen among refugees at the camp.

Stromberg said some of the evacuated U.N. staff reported heavy military movement west of the camp, indicating Hutu militiamen were retreating westward, away from the advancing rebels.

The United Nations in Nairobi said the French relief agency Action Against Hunger also evacuated its workers from Tingi-Tingi and Kisangani because of the insecurity.

In Kisangani, government soldiers and hired mercenaries prevented all trucks with aid deliveries from leaving the city Friday.

On Tuesday, Kabila flew from the Rwandan capital of Kigali to Johannesburg, where South Africa is trying to arrange a cease-fire between the rebels and government troops.

Although Kabila said he was ready for direct talks, Mobutu’s government says there will be no such meetings until foreign troops supporting the rebels - reported to come from Rwanda and Uganda - leave Zaire.

Bolongo said Friday that government troops had discovered about 4,000 Ugandan soldiers in Bunia and Mahagi in the Upper Zaire region, which is on the eastern border with Uganda.

In Paris, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday he would try to persuade the international community to send a multinational force to the region.

He also contradicted earlier reports that meetings soon would take place between Mobutu and U.N. officials in France.