Zaire’s Mobutu Hangs On Amid Rising Protests : Africa: President resorts to force and subterfuge to stall his ouster amid coup attempts, get-rich schemes, shattering of economy.

President Mobutu Sese Seko uses a mixture of force and subterfuge to escape the fate of other dictators.

In the last year, the country has experienced a brief, supposed coup attempt, get-rich quick schemes that fleeced thousands of people, plundering of cities by mutinous soldiers, and the destruction of what was left of Zaire’s economy and institutions.

Mobutu now says that, as president, “I must remain above the melee,” and can only make recommendations to the government “as a simple citizen.” He avoids the capital, living on his riverboat or in his palace 1,000 miles from Kinshasa.

Newspapers call Mobutu the Eagle-Ringmaster, who swoops down whenever he sees trouble in the circus.

Authoritarian leaders such as Mobutu, who has ruled the former Belgian Congo for 27 years, have been stripped of power in several other African nations by national conferences.

Zaire’s conference on democracy opened several months late, initially packed with Mobutu supporters in various guises, then was suspended on Jan. 19 when the opposition managed to win control.

Mobutu promised to reopen the conference, but has not done so.

Pro-democracy demonstrators led by priests rejected Mobutu’s effort to reopen the meeting under new rules, taking to the streets by the hundreds of thousands on Feb. 16 in peaceful marches.

His special security units opened fire on the marchers, killing at least 32, according to independent human rights organizations.

The killings drew the strongest condemnation yet from former Western allies, who gave Mobutu hundreds of millions of dollars in military and other aid during the Cold War.

On the eve of a new march two weeks later, Mobutu told Monsengwo Pasinya, the Roman Catholic archbishop, the conference would reopen immediately. They issued a joint statement.

The announcement on government television Feb. 29 raised hopes, and the planned march fizzled. Diplomats, even opposition leaders, were convinced that Mobutu would let the meeting resume.

Instead, he announced that Monsengwo must hold talks first with Prime Minister Nguza Karl-I-Bond, who was said to be ailing and unable to begin negotiations.

Newspapers were filled with speculation that the prime minister was either under house arrest, had fled or was badly beaten. Some reported that Nguza had a toothache. One cartoon showed Mobutu pulling the prime minister’s teeth out with pliers.

Government media devoted much attention to an alleged coup attempt by a unit of soldiers, mostly teen-agers, who briefly took over the national radio and television center.

Visitors were unable to find bullet holes or other signs of a fight the government said occurred when loyal units dislodged them.

Each alleged rebel was shown on television giving his age, hometown and educational background.

A newspaper lampooned the affair with a cartoon quoting one of the youngsters as asking, “What is education?” Zaire’s schools have been closed for months by a teachers’ strike, and few have books when they are open.

Last year, after weeks of violent student protests in Kinshasa, a pyramid scheme called Bindo Promotion was launched, promising those who bought tickets they could double their money in days.

Some people sold their houses to buy tickets. When the schemes collapsed, the students, businessmen, soldiers, housewives and others who had bought tickets spent weeks trying to get their money back.

When Mobutu announced on April 24, 1990, that he would permit opposition parties, he said only three could be formed. After protests, he lifted the ban. Hundreds of parties were formed, and Mobutu financed many of them.

Mobutu has co-opted many opponents, giving them big salaries, luxury cars and villas. Karl-I-Bond, who had become a leading critic, was lured away from the opposition late last year to become prime minister.

The president likes to minimize his use of force, once joking that half the people “walking the streets of Kinshasa have been condemned to death.”

In May of 1990, however, a special commando unit was sent to Lumbumbashi University. The soldiers cut the power at midnight, slipped onto the campus and slit the throats of at least a dozen students, according to Belgian and U.N. investigators.

Unpaid army units rioted in September, pillaging most cities and causing damage estimated at nearly $1 billion. More than 15,000 foreign businessmen fled, costing hundreds of thousands of Zairians their jobs.

All this is reported in the newly freed press, which ridicules the government daily.

On some days, soldiers beat street vendors and take their papers. The formerly pro-Mobutu newspaper Elima, which became a leading critic, was blown up with plastic explosives last year.

Zairians say the president is playing for time.

Archbishop Monsengwo, a symbol of the resistance, said: “When you play for time you may find some day that things do not work out as planned.”