Desperate Measures

TINGI-TINGI, Zaire: Finding itself on the brink of destruction, Zai re's government is suddenly desperate to end the war in the eastern part of the country. After months of refusing to negotiate with rebels, government representatives accepted a U.N. cease-fire proposal, according to U.N. officials. The plan calls f or an immediate end to the fighting, the withdrawal of all foreign forces, including mercenaries, protection of refugees and an international conference to resolve the conflicts in the region. But TIME's Peter Graff reports that the opportunity fo r a U.N.-brokered peace has almost certainly passed. After overtaking the mining towns of Manono and Kabalo in the Shaba region to the south, and Kindu and Lubutu to the north, "the rebels are not in a position to make concessions, they are in a p osition to demand them." Rebel fighters picking over the remains of the abandoned Tingi-Tingi camp Wednesday found plenty of evidence that the Zaire government had indeed used its members as a de facto fighting force. The remains of a plane with the log o of Mobutu's party, used to ship arms into the camp, were scattered on the ground, blown up by Rwandan Hutu militiamen before they fled with the rest of the refugees. Anti-personnel mines had been planted, and dozens of guns, 30 crates of AK- 47 bullets, walkie-talkies and a machine gun were found packed in a storage room. Within days, the rebel forces are expected to take control of Kisangani, where the Zaire river, in a country with few roads, provides crucial strategic access acro ss Zaire to its capital of Kinshasa. Predictably, the idea of an immediate peace was gently dismissed. "First we talk, then maybe a cease-fire," said rebel spokesman Kazadi Nyembwe in Tanzania. "We can't really meet with anyone else but Mobu tu because he's the one who is running this whole game. He runs Zaire." But President Mobutu remains at his villa on the French Riviera suffering from cancer. At this point, Zaire is unlikely to see his return. "It's hard to imagine Prime Minist er Kengo outliving Kisangani by more than days or weeks," says Graff. "When Kengo falls, he's likely to take Mobutu down with him."