Zaire’s Premier Says President Had No Right to Fire Him, Won’t Leave Office

Prime Minister Etienne Tshisekedi said Saturday that President Mobutu Sese Seko had no legal right to fire him and he would not leave office.

In a televised speech Friday night, Mobutu blamed Tshisekedi for riots in which at least 80 people were killed and said he would ask the transitional Parliament to name a new premier.

Tshisekedi, chosen last August by the pro-democracy forum, said an interim constitution approved by the conference took away Mobutu’s power to hire and fire prime ministers.

“The question is to see if Mr. Mobutu has the right to say what he has said. He has none,” Tshisekedi said. “I was elected by the national conference and I remain so.”

Mobutu takes issue with the interim constitution, and his supporters have put forward their own version.

The two men are locked in a long-running power struggle over reforms that would end Mobutu’s 28-year grip on the huge central African country.

Mobutu previously appointed Tshisekedi as prime minister in October, 1991, but fired him within a week because he refused to swear allegiance to the president.

That dismissal caused fresh riots a month after several cities were devastated by army-led looting. More than 250 people died in the two flare-ups.

The capital, Kinshasa, appeared calm Saturday after Mobutu’s announcement, although witnesses said armed soldiers had robbed passersby in the western Binza district.

The current clash over a new bank note, issued by the pro-Mobutu central bank but declared inflationary and illegal by the prime minister, sparked more riots just over a week ago when soldiers paid in the new notes were unable to spend them.