Zaire Peace Drive a Coup for Mandela

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —  Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s president and the continent’s most revered statesman, was furious. “Even if you must insult Mobutu, do not insult me,” Mandela thundered at Laurent Kabila, head of the rebel army now poised to topple the rapacious 32-year regime of Zairian autocrat Mobutu Sese Seko.

The angry exchange over a satellite phone finally persuaded Kabila to end two tense days of stalling and stalemate Sunday. He quickly joined Mandela and Mobutu aboard the Outeniqua, a South African converted icebreaker docked in the torpid Congolese port of Pointe-Noire.

Kabila’s first face-to-face meeting with Mobutu since the rebellion erupted in October failed to immediately produce a cease-fire or persuade the cancer-stricken dictator to resign or go into exile. Kabila’s army is reportedly gathering outside Kinshasa and could capture the capital in days.

But Mandela’s unorthodox icebreaker diplomacy, closely coordinated with efforts by United Nations special envoy Mohamed Sahnoun and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Bill Richardson, won widespread praise at home and abroad for South Africa’s first major attempt at African peacemaking.

“We see this as a key step in seeking a long-term political solution for Zaire,” said Pieter Swanepoel, spokesman for South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs. “If it was just supposed to be peace talks and cessation of hostilities, then it wasn’t a success. . . . But we achieved a great deal in terms of finding common ground and getting the two sides to put proposals on the table for the first time. No one really knew until then what the two sides wanted.”

Kabila and Mobutu agreed at the talks to meet again next week. But events are still volatile in Zaire, with unconfirmed reports that the insurgents are fast closing in on Kinshasa. Mobutu left the capital for a three-day regional summit in Gabon and may return today.

Mandela’s personal intervention in the Zairian crisis--including nearly daily phone calls with Mobutu--came after a surprising series of blunders in international affairs since he was inaugurated as South Africa’s first post-apartheid president three years ago this week.

Mandela has repeatedly angered Washington, for example, by proposing to sell sophisticated arms to Syria, by building close links to Fidel Castro’s Cuba, by signing major oil deals with Iran and by making warm overtures to Libya’s Moammar Kadafi.

Mandela’s irate call for international sanctions against Nigeria’s military regime after nine political dissidents were summarily hanged in 1995 ended in embarrassment when Mandela was forced to backtrack. He similarly reversed course last year when he abruptly abandoned longtime ally Taiwan to normalize relations with China.

Most recently, the first negotiations between Kabila and one of Mobutu’s aides in Cape Town last month were almost derailed when Mandela publicly announced the supposedly secret talks before they began.

“He nearly scuttled the talks,” said Mark Malan, senior researcher at the independent Institute for Security Studies in Johannesburg. “But this is a new role for South Africa. Mistakes will be made.”

Mandela has played a less-noticed but crucial diplomatic role closer to home. He has assisted the still-shaky peace process in Angola, worked to ensure democratic elections in Mozambique and helped reinstall a constitutional monarch after unrest in Lesotho.

The U.S. role in Zaire has met a mixed welcome. Richardson was forced off the Outeniqua after Kabila objected to his presence. And critics here accused the U.S. envoy of trying to upstage Mandela by announcing the talks.

“I called it diplomatic plagiarism,” said Vernon Seymour of the Center for Southern African Studies in Cape Town.

For his part, Richardson praised South Africa for “taking the lead” after meeting Tuesday with Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s deputy president, in Cape Town. “They’re doing a lot of work, a lot of good diplomacy,” he added.