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Late dictator's son visits rebels in Congo

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October 9, 2000 

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) - Congolese rebels fighting to oust President Laurent Kabila on Sunday received support from an unusual ally - the son of late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Nzanga Mobutu, who has been acting as a family spokesman since Kabila ousted Mobutu and forced his family and supporters into exile in May 1997, arrived in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Saturday and plans to visit towns under rebel control in eastern Congo next week, said rebel spokesman Kin-Kiey Mulumba.

"It is a clear message to Kabila that Mobutu's family and supporters want to take part in the overthrow of the dictatorship," Mulumba, who was Mobutu's last minister of information before joining the anti-Kabila rebels, told The Associated Press.

He said, however, that Nzanga Mobutu was not joining the rebels "for now."

Mobutu, who ruled what was then Zaire for 32 years, died of a prostate cancer in exile in Morocco in Sept. 1997. Since then, his family, who have been living in France and Morocco, have kept a low profile and avoided associating themselves with the latest rebellion which began Aug. 2, 1998.

Neighboring Rwanda and Uganda poured troops and arms across the border into Congo in support of the rebellion, accusing Kabila of mismanagement and enlisting the support of Rwandan Hutu militiamen who took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Fighting in Congo has intensified despite a year-old peace accord signed by all sides in the war. Kabila has refused to authorize the full deployment of 5,537 U.N. military observers and peacekeeping troops, as envisaged by the agreement, and rejected an African-appointed mediator for a postwar national conference.

In northwestern Congo, the Ugandan-backed Congolese Liberation Movement has been steadily closing in on the key government town of Mbandaka, 700 kilometers (435 miles) northeast of the capital, Kinshasa.

Last week, rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba charged that government aircraft are bombarding rebel towns daily, apparently in an attempt to slow rebel advances.

U.N. aid workers, meanwhile, said both Congolese refugees and troops had been escaping the fighting along the Congo and Oubangi rivers into neighboring Republic of Congo, where more than 70,000 people had already arrived since June.

Nzanga Mobutu was received by the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy, which is fighting in southern and southeastern Congo.

Mulumba said the late leader's son would issue a statement at the end of his visit to Congo, which is his first since he fled Kinshasa in 1997.