LUBUMBASHI, Zaire Rebel leader Laurent Kabila and PresidentMobutu Sese Seko agree they will meet, but the rebels said Tuesdaythere is only one thing to discuss: Mobutu's departure from power.
U.S. envoy Bill Richardson was in Lubumbashi on Tuesday night totalk with Kabila. Earlier, the blunt-talking ambassador to theUnited Nations pressed Mobutu to accept that he cannot stop therebels and urged him to agree to immediate peace talks.
"There can be no military solution to this crisis," Richardsonsaid in the capital, Kinshasa, where he met the president."President Mobutu and rebel leader Kabila must meet face-to-facewithout delay."Kabila's foreign affairs minister, Bizima Karaha, said therewould be only one chance at talks - and that talks would be briefbecause the only topic would be the end of Mobutu's 32-yeardictatorship."I am here officially to announce that we are going to thedirect, the first and the only meeting between President Kabila andMobutu. It will probably happen very soon, and it will be somewherein the Atlantic Ocean," Karaha said."We are not going there to discuss a cease-fire. We are goingthere to discuss the end of the war, a complete end of the war. Anda complete end of the war can only come about when the man whobrought the war is no longer there."Furthermore, the rebels - who have seized more than half ofAfrica's third-largest nation in seven months - would not stop theiroffensive while waiting for a settlement, he said.Tuesday morning, the rebels easily captured Kikwit, a city on amajor highway only 250 miles east of the capital, Karaha said."The next stop is Kinshasa," he said.Mobutu, 66, has insisted he would never bow to Kabila's demandthat he resign, but he is under increasing pressure. He is ill withprostate cancer, Western powers have urged him to give up, and thepolitical opposition within Zaire is gaining momentum with each rebelvictory.In Kinshasa, Mobutu appeared briefly with Richardson on theveranda of his residence but made no statement.
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