ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 24, 1997 TAG: 9703240039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
On the day ailing President Mobutu Sese Seko returned, the Pentagon ordered a 250-member force as a precaution.
The Clinton administration is sending ``several hundred'' U.S. troops into western Africa to prepare for a possible evacuation of Americans from Zaire, the Pentagon said Friday.
The move came as the State Department warned U.S. citizens to defer all travel to that country because of the potential for unrest.
No order has been issued for an evacuation from Zaire, officials stressed. The Pentagon order to move up to 250 men and women as part of a ``joint task force'' is strictly a precautionary measure, Pentagon sources said.
The troops primarily are coming from an Army airborne unit based in Italy.
``This deployment does not represent a U.S. commitment to any particular course of action,'' the Defense Department said.
The new forces will augment a 30-member U.S. military team that has been in Zaire this week.
Also Friday, Zaire's cancer-stricken president, Mobutu Sese Seko, returned home to Kinshasa from France.
Weakened by prostate cancer, the 66-year-old Mobutu had hoped his return would help end fighting and restore confidence in his divided government. His aides said he was too weak to meet anyone, but would talk with the press Saturday or Sunday.
In contrast, rebel leader Laurent Kabila received a jubilant welcome Friday in Kisangani, which his forces took last weekend. A dancing crowd of 10,000 welcomed him, waving palm fronds, symbols of peace, and chanting ``We are free! We are free!''
The rebels have said they will stop fighting only after Mobutu holds direct talks with Kabila. Mobutu has so far refused.
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