Word: rebel
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KINSHASA, Zaire: As rebel forces advanced within 60 miles of Zaire's embattled capital, U.N. mediators worked feverishly for a last-minute peace deal and State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns urged Americans to leave, saying "the end game is approaching." U.S. troops were preparing to evacuate Americans from the capital. On Tuesday, Mobutu Sese Seko's government imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on the city's residents. Although officials said the restrictions were imposed to prevent looting and unrest among civilians, it is government soldiers who have ransacked other cities as Kabila's troops advanced. Fearing that the final...
...endgame in Zaire arrived sooner than anyone expected. President Mobutu Sese Seko, the country's corrupt "Supreme Guide" for 32 years, finally ran out of moves. When he grudgingly flew off last Friday for a possible meeting with rebel leader Laurent Desire Kabila, Mobutu could choose only his manner of exit: to resign, as his neighbors and former friends were urging, or be thrown out at gunpoint, as Kabila's advancing troops intended to do in short order. Since last October the rebels of Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces have surged across two-thirds of the vast nation, while...
...cloud over Kabila's emergence is the conduct of his troops, some of whom have systematically blocked access to suffering refugees. International aid agencies also accused his troops of participating in the slaughter that took place two weeks ago at Hutu camps where 80,000 refugees were huddled in rebel-held territory. More than 1 million Hutu fled into Zaire from Rwanda in 1994 after genocidal tribal warfare there, and an unknown number have been running ever farther west to escape Kabila's advancing Tutsi-led fighters. In recent weeks they have become the hapless victims of many attackers: Mobutu...
...Zaire," says TIME's Peter Graff from Nairobi. Western diplomats are hoping he stays away. "With Mobutu absent, (US envoy) Bill Richardson's 'soft landing' will be much easier to negotiate," says Graff. "The remnants of the Mobutuist military would agree to lay down their arms and the rebels would enter the capital in peace." As fighting continues near Kenge, east of the capital, Graff says rebel leader Laurent Kabila himself is perhaps a week away from arriving in Kinshasa. While Mobutu may attempt to save face by leaving a transitional government in his wake, it is doubtful Kabila would...
KINSHASA, Zaire: As Mobutu Sese Seko continued what many believe could be a permanent absence from Zaire, the battle for Kinshasa began in earnest. After taking three-quarters of Zaire with little or no resistance from demoralized government troops, Laurent Kabila's rebel forces are now locked in an unexpectedly bloody battle in Kenge, 120 miles east of the capital. Reportedly 300 people, including 100 civilians, have already been killed. Kinshasa's defense has reportedly been joined by Rwandan and Angolan mercenaries propping up Mobutu's tattered forces. Rebels also said French mercenaries were holding down Kinshasa's airport. Kabila...