ZAIRE'S NEW ORDER

HIS TROOPS INFLAMED THE REFUGEE PROBLEM, BUT REBEL KABILA REPRESENTS A FRESH BREED OF LEADER

The 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 Mobutu's untrained and underpaid...

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