Humiliated, Zblrefe Mobutu
looks for military^ support
KINSHASA, Zaire (AP)—Aban
doned by some of his best foreign
friends and offered a humiliating out
by a longtime foe, Zairian dictator
Mobutu Sese Seko turned Thursday to
the one compatriot who has always
been there for him: the military.
His new prime minister wore a
four-star general’s uniform on his first
day on the job, underscoring his com
mitment to “restoring order” to the
war-racked land.
Rebel leader Laurent Kabik
stopped his advancing forces to give
Mobutu time to mull over a three-day
ultimatum to step down. But he made
clear that rebels will march on the
capital — the president’s last strong
hold — if the answer is no.
Two of Mobutu’s once-loyal for
eign backers, Belgium and the United
States, intensified pressure on him to
resign.
His former allies were outraged
when Mobutu cronies—including his
son — blocked opposition leader
Etienne Tshisekedi from taking his
seat as prime minister on Wednesday.
“Mobutuism has no future, and
now we have to see how to get to a
transitional government,” Belgian
Foreign Minister Erik Derycke said in
Brussels.
The White House called Thursday
for rebel-government negotiations on
“interim arrangements for new con
stitutional authority in Zaire,” press
secretary Mike McCurry said.
Broken promise
Mobutu, ailing and having lost
more than a third of his country to the
rebels, had succumbed last week to
domestic and international pressure to
name Tshisekedi as prime minister.
Tshisekedi promised to overhaul
corruption and work toward elections,
but the experiment in democracy
didn’t last long. After two days of pro
Tshisekedi rallies, Mobutu cracked
down on activists, declared a state of
emergency and appointed an old army
buddy, Likulia Bolongo, prime min
ister.
A senior aide to Tshisekedi prom
ised further resistance, and said the
Tshisekedi administration — which
considers itself Zaire’s legitimate gov
ernment —would seek to try Mobutu
for high treason.
Joseph Yaone said Tshisekedi’s
path would continue to be non-violent.
“We don’t have to prove ourselves
against barbarians,” he said.
Leaving little doubt about the new
government’s direction, Likulia wore
his general’s uniform and was saluted
by his guards as he left his luxurious
Kinshasa home for his first meeting
with Mobutu as premier.
Likulia’s convoy arrived at
Mobutu’s heavily guarded palace,
overlooking the rapids of the Zaire
River, just as a bugle call marked the
noon hour.
The pomp and circumstance re
called Mobutu’s good old days, im
mortalized on ministry building walls
where yellowing photographs show
the uniformed dictator receiving
American and European dignitaries.
Faded glory
When Mobutu assumed power in
1965, the United States and Zaire’s
former colonial masters in Belgium
saw the eager and capable young colo
nel as the key to stabilizing Zaire and
thwarting Soviet expansion in the re
gion.
But the friendship faded with the
end of the Cold War and Mobutu’s
alleged tendency to keep mining rev
enues from Zaire’s mineral-rich land
for himself.
Mobutu clearly has been stung by
the perceived abandonment.
“I’m not propped up by certain
embassies,” he said during a rare pub
lic appearance last week. “I don’t de
pend on them.”
One senior officer shouted at a re
porter leaving Likulia’s first press con
ference: “The United States treats its
friends like Kleenex!”
The Belgian and U.S. ambassadors
met with Likulia on Thursday.
“I think that this country needs,
very badly, change,” U.S. Ambassa
dor Daniel Simpson said after the
meeting. “What you need is respon
sible elected government.”
Simpson said Mobutu did not nec
essarily have to step down to effect
change. But the Belgians — with a
large expatriate community and exten
sive business interests in Zaire—hope
that change will come with Kabila.
“Kabila is clear: He wants a tran
sitional period and then democratic
elections,” said Derycke, the Belgian
foreign minister.
Kabila on Thursday welcomed the
U.S. distancing from Mobutu.
“Everybody knows that this is the
time for Mr. Mobutu to get out of
power,” Kabila said.
Fighting continues
In the southeast, fighting contin
ued Thursday on the outskirts of
Lubumbashi, Zaire’s second-largest
city. U.N. staff reported gunfire and
explosions in the general direction of
the Lubumbashi airport, spokesman
Juan-Carlos Brandt said in New York.
The rebels, meanwhile, said they
were approaching Kinshasa and called
on foreign nationals to evacuate the
capital, according to a radio report
monitored in nearby Gabon. Diplo
mats in Kinshasa said they had heard
of the warning, but were not taking it
seriously.
Some 1,300 Marines and other
U.S. forces near Zaire were at “a very
high state of awareness and prepared
ness” in the event an evacuation of
Americans is ordered, Pentagon
spokesman Navy Capt. Michael
Doubleday said in Washington.
Thabo Mbeki, the South African
deputy president, said Thursday that
South Africa may be willing to give
Mobutu asylum.
Sunday, April 13
Noon and 2 p.m.
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Monday, April 14
1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
General Admission:
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Children 6 and under - FREE
UNL Students w/ID -FREE
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■
Pictures of Europa
show frozen water;
moon may hold life
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) —
“Mind-blowing pictures” of large ice
bergs on the surface of Jupiter’s fro
zen moon Europa are tantalizing sci
entists with the possibility of evidence
of a dynamic ocean, which could have
spawned life at some time.
The close-up pictures taken by the
unmanned Galileo spacecraft during
a Feb. 20 flyby have scientists more
eager than ever to explore the icy
moon’s interior.
The pictures of icy chunks scat
tered like pottery shards provide “the
clearest evidence to date there is liq
uid water and melting close to the sur
face of Europa,” said Torrence
Johnson, the Galileo project scientist
at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Their movement adds weight to
scientists’ notion that a relatively
warm watery or slushy layer under
lies a frozen crust that could be any
where from 1 to 60 miles thick.
An international group of scien
tists was meeting across town to dis
cuss a proposed ice-penetrating robotic
craft that might be able to explore
Europa.
Asked if the latest pictures were
enough to convince him there’s life on
Europa, oceanographer John Delaney
said NASA and oceanographers could
design experiments to answer the
question.
u
The United States treats its friends like
Kleenex!”
senior Zairian official
Hafion/WorUt**
Cohen predicts communist North Korea will fall
PANMUNJOM, South Korea—Defense Secretary William Cohen
peered across the Demilitarized Zone on Thursday and predicted the
demise of “decaying and dying” communist North Korea.
Less than an hour earlier, North Korean soldiers had crossed into
the South’s sector, retreating only after guards fired warning shots.
The incident, which involved no American troops, was about 65
miles east of where Cohen and his entourage were, said Cmdr. Jeff
Gradeck, a Cohen spokesman.
Later, over lunch with U.S. troops, Cohen suggested the long and
costly struggle between the North and the U.S.-backed capitalist South
soon will be over.
“We’re very close to the finishing line, seeing a united and free
Korea,” Cohen told soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division, among 37,000
U.S. troops in Korea.
Interviewed later by American reporters, Cohen said he was certain
North Korea, whose economy is in shambles and whose people report
edly are starving, could not hold on much longer. He warned the col
lapse could be painful.
“It’s inevitable that the North cannot sustain itself, that the regime
will collapse in one form or another — hopefully peacefully, perhaps
violently,” he said. But he ventured that it’s impossible to say whether
the collapse will cane after months or will take years to happen.
Arafat agrees to help Israel prevent suicide attacks
JERUSALEM — Raising hopes for an end to the deadly Mideast
impasse, Palestinian police helped Israel crack a cell of the Islamic
militant group Hamas on Thursday and officials said Yasser Arafat
had pledged to work with Israel to stop suicide bombings.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu credited the Palestinians for
helping to find the body of a missing Israeli soldier, and said the Hamas
cell that killed him also was responsible for at least 13 other deaths,
including a March 21 suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv cafe that killed
three women.
Arafat promised to help stop such bombings this week in a meeting
with the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, Israeli and Palestin
ian officials said Thursday.
The meeting was the first high-level contact between Israel and the
Palestinians since Israel broke ground three weeks ago for a new Jew
ish neighborhood in the part of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians.
It raised hopes that the daily — and deadly — clashes in the West
Bank could end.
But in the town of Hebron on Thursday, hundreds of Palestinians
threw stones and firebombs at Israeli troops who responded with rub
ber bullets, injuring seven people.
Alabama station won’t air ’coming out’ episode
NEW YORK — ABC’s TV station in Birmingham, Ala., won’t
run the episode of “Ellen” later this month in which the lead character
comes out as a lesbian.
“We do not think it is appropriate for family viewing,” said Jerry
Heilman, president and general manager of WBMA.
The decision amounts to censorship, said a spokeswoman for the
Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights organization based in Wash
ington.
“The viewing public can make its own decision on whether to watch
this episode or not,” spokeswoman Kim Mills said. “The affiliate is
functioning as Big Brother in deciding whether or not viewers are ca
pable of making this decision.”
An advocacy group that campaigns against sex and violence on TV
praised the Birmingham station. The American Family Association
hopes other stations follow suit, even though it hasn’t organized any
campaign to encourage them.
“I think it’s great news that an ABC affiliate has chosen not to go
along with Disney and ABC’s big celebration of lesbianism,” said Tim
Wildmon, the group’s executive vice president.
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