Zaire Government

Rebel forces in eastern Zaire have achieved major territorial gains in the past week and now, for the first time, appear to seriously threaten the government of one of Africa's largest nations. United Nations officials, diplomats and military experts who closely follow the war say the guerrillas have smashed a long-promised counteroffensive launched with much fanfare Jan. 20 by Zairian troops and several hundred mercenaries, mostly French and Serb.

The government Monday rejected a U.N. appeal for a truce in the war in eastern Zaire and, vowing to crush the rebels there, dispatched warplanes to bomb at least one guerrilla-held town. Three Zairian planes dropped bombs on Bukavu, on the border with Rwanda. Aid workers reached by telephone there reported that three planes dropped four bombs, including one that landed on the town's market. They said up to nine people were killed.

The government here rejected a U.N. proposal to end Zaire's civil war, describing it Wednesday as a "timid advance" that fails to condemn neighboring African countries for supporting the rebels. Nevertheless, South African President Nelson Mandela said the two sides may begin peace talks as early as today. "The contending parties in that conflict . . . have made a request that they would like to meet in South Africa," Mandela said in Cape Town after holding talks with African leaders.

The government, reeling from a series of battlefield losses to rebels, accepted a United Nations cease-fire proposal. But the rebels, on the verge of capturing the provincial capital of Kisangani after weeks of fighting, may not be ready to put down their arms yet. Meanwhile, the government ordered 19 U.N. relief workers and 38 other international aid specialists expelled.

Zaire's embattled prime minister was ousted from power Tuesday, deepening the political crisis brought on by the fast-spreading civil war in sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest country. Leon Kengo wa Dondo was toppled by a vote of Parliament in the capital, Kinshasa, shortly after he flew here to meet African leaders to discuss the insurrection that has swept eastern Zaire and threatens to engulf the giant country.

A cancer-stricken, absent strongman. A rebel army on the march. Ethnic warfare. Frightened, fleeing refguees by the hundreds of thousands. For months, the headlines have chronicled the tortuous slide of Zaire into paralysis and despair. Such chaos, of course, is hardly unique in Central Africa. But, analysts warn, the consequences of a collapse in Zaire could be particularly severe because of the size and strategic importance of the giant nation to the Central African region.

Fresh flowers fill crystal vases. Recessed lights shine on rich rugs and marble floors. Silk pillows hug leather couches. Beethoven plays softly from speakers hidden in the walls. The plush hilltop villa, and the shiny Jaguar parked outside, belong to one of Zaire's most powerful men. He is a Cabinet minister, a former ambassador and a key member of ailing President Mobutu Sese Seko's tottering regime.

Mobutu Sese Seko, Africa's longest-ruling dictator, solved one mystery here Sunday but immediately sparked another. The first was simple. The cancer-stricken president briefly met reporters, looking tired and frail. But he smiled and walked unaided, ending widespread speculation that he was dead or nearly so. "I am named Mobutu," he said softly, wearing his trademark leopard-skin cap and waving his silver-topped ebony cane at the crush of cameras and microphones.

Hoping to preserve some remnant of its fast-fading power, President Mobutu Sese Seko's regime Tuesday proposed the creation of a seven-member council to seek negotiations and a cease-fire with rebels who have vowed to topple him. The apparent concession came after heavy diplomatic lobbying by Washington and other governments anxious to prevent further widening of the five-month conflict.

Zaire's rebels agreed to talks with President Mobutu Sese Seko's shaky regime Thursday but successfully resisted pressure to first accept a cease-fire. A two-day summit of African leaders on the Zaire crisis ended with a statement calling for immediate negotiations between the warring parties. Five months into their revolt, rebel leader Laurent Kabila's disciplined fighters control about a quarter of Zaire.