Mobutu Sese Seko

A search of Swiss banks turned up only $3.4 million belonging to deposed Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko--far short of the billions he and his relatives are believed to have stashed there during his long, corrupt reign. The announcement Tuesday followed an informal survey of 12 banks in April that turned up nothing. Under pressure from the Swiss government, regulators told the banks to check again more carefully. Mobutu, ousted last month, is believed to be one of the world's richest men.

Mobutu Sese Seko, the ailing former leader of Zaire, was in good condition after undergoing surgery for serious bleeding, the official Moroccan news agency MAP said. Mobutu, 66, suffering from prostate cancer, was brought to Rabat, the Moroccan capital, from the northern town of Tangier on Friday and admitted to a hospital. Police were on duty at the facility, and at least half a dozen official cars were parked outside.

Exiled former Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, suffering from advanced prostate cancer, checked into a Moroccan hospital after France refused to allow him entry for medical treatment, said his son, Nzanga Mobutu. A hospital official in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, said Mobutu checked into the hospital but refused to give any other information. Nzanga Mobutu said his father was "doing fine" and would return to the luxury hotel in Tangier where he has been staying.

Nine senior military officers said they would join the rebels fighting to overthrow President Mobutu Sese Seko in eastern Zaire. The officers were among those who were leading the Zairian army when Goma and Bukavu--key cities on the border with Rwanda--fell to Laurent Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire last year. The officers said they were called back to the capital, Kinshasa, and were suspected of supporting the rebels.

President Mobutu Sese Seko on Saturday rejected a looming rebel deadline for him to resign, but he said publicly for the first time that he would be willing to meet rebel leader Laurent Kabila if asked "politely." Mobutu's statement at a news conference here marked a turnabout from his strong opposition to direct talks with Kabila.

In what could emerge as the major diplomatic breakthrough to end Zaire's civil war, President Mobutu Sese Seko has agreed in principle to meet with Laurent Kabila, the rebel whose forces have seized about half the country in a drive to end Mobutu's 32-year grip on power. The agreement was announced Thursday in Cape Town by United Nations envoy Mohammed Sahnoun shortly after South African President Nelson Mandela formally invited Mobutu to peace talks.

As pressure mounts from Washington to Brussels for Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko to quit, only France, which has major economic interests in Central Africa, has not joined the chorus. On Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jacques Rummelhardt called on Mobutu, one of Africa's longest-ruling dictators, to hold talks with Laurent Kabila, whose rebel forces have been gobbling up Zairian territory and are demanding that the 66-year-old president resign by Sunday.

As rebel troops marched in triumph into Kikwit, the last major city on their path to this capital, President Mobutu Sese Seko and rebel chief Laurent Kabila agreed Tuesday to a face-to-face meeting as early as this weekend. Kabila said the two agreed to meet, with South African President Nelson Mandela as host, aboard a South African naval ship for discussions that might forestall a violent overthrow of the Zairian regime.

If doubts remained that the clock is ticking on the 32-year reign of President Mobutu Sese Seko, rebel chieftain Laurent Kabila on Wednesday gave the president and his courtiers in this capital a timetable for packing their suitcases. The guerrilla leader, who now controls more than a third of this mineral-rich nation, said he will be in Kinshasa "in three weeks' time, and I am very serious."

The Clinton administration has been pressing President Mobutu Sese Seko, a U.S. ally for 25 years, to resign and go into exile to help his nation achieve a settlement to civil war, according to a senior administration official. Although the administration has stopped short of publicly urging Mobutu to step down, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs George E. Moose called Mobutu's regime "bankrupt" and "a thing of the past."