Rebel Chief Gives Zaire Leader 3 Weeks to Step Down

If doubts remained that the clock is ticking on the 32-year reign of President Mobutu Sese Seko, rebel chieftain Laurent Kabila on Wednesday gave the president and his courtiers in this capital a timetable for packing their suitcases. The guerrilla leader, who now controls more than a third of this mineral-rich nation, said he will be in Kinshasa “in three weeks’ time, and I am very serious.”

Coming from Kabila, whose advance from the Rwandan frontier since October has been nothing if not methodical, the statement rang true.

Diplomats only hoped that the ailing Mobutu was listening.

“Nobody wants a fight for Kinshasa,” said one Western ambassador, expressing a wish that “the people close to Mobutu understand the writing’s on the wall.”

Kabila’s comments came amid diplomatic efforts to set up a meeting between the rebel chief and Mobutu that would lead to a graceful exit for the president, who heads Africa’s third-largest nation.

A Mobutu spokesman told reporters that a meeting was “imminent.”

“Things are getting clearer,” Information Minister Kin-Kiey Mulumba said. “Plans are afoot.”

Kabila was in South Africa on Wednesday meeting with President Nelson Mandela in Cape Town. Western diplomats said the only real topic for discussion now was putting together a face-saving exit for Mobutu and his associates.

Adding to the general uncertainty were accusations that former Prime Minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo fled the country with millions of dollars in government funds needed to pay the capital’s army garrison, the city’s only defense against the rebels. Aides to Kengo, who was ousted as prime minister more than three weeks ago and has apparently made his way to Switzerland over the weekend, have denied any wrongdoing.

Although Kengo’s whereabouts are unknown, Western diplomats expressed doubts about the accusation because Mobutu himself is widely thought to have plundered the state coffers more than anyone.

“It looks a little suspicious,” said one envoy. “Kengo has been a pretty popular villain, so why not scapegoat him now?”

The troops are scheduled to be paid Sunday, and there were reports that the Bank of Zaire had been seeking money from private businesses to cover a new printing of currency needed to pay the soldiers. In the past, failure to meet the army payroll has caused desertions and riots.

After two days of political protests by opponents of Mobutu, a hush fell over Kinshasa, a verdant but bedraggled city of 5 million where begging and hawking seem the chief economic activities, civil servants seldom get paid, and the weeds grow tall beside the Palace of the People that overlooks the Zaire River.

There were few outward signs of tension Wednesday as police and troops kept a low profile, apparently to avoid provocative incidents that could further undermine the regime. Nor were there protests by the students and unemployed who support the main opposition leader in Kinshasa, ousted Prime Minister Etienne Tshisekedi, who succeeded Kengo.

Tshisekedi’s backers organized a successful one-day strike Monday--called to create a “dead city” day--that emptied streets and shut down companies, markets and transportation. But a planned day of protest on Tuesday fizzled, said diplomats and Western observers.

Police acted quickly Tuesday to bottle up and disperse any gathering of more than half a dozen people, even an innocent knot of individuals waiting in line to buy newspapers. Rather than fight back, the city’s normally rambunctious students seemed content to bide their time.