ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, April 3, 1997                TAG: 9704030054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: KINSHASA, ZAIRE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

ZAIRE NAMES NEW PRIME MINISTER DUBBED `THE SPHINX' FOR HIS CRANKY NATURE

Etienne Tshisekedi began his opposition to President Mobutu's one-party dictatorship in the 1970s.

Zaire's new prime minister was succinct when asked to make a victory statement: ``Get serious.''

Those words from Etienne Tshisekedi, accompanied by a dismissive wave of the hand at reporters staking out his back yard, typify the cranky opposition leader dubbed ``The Sphinx'' by Kinshasa's voluble press.

But they also reflect the rock-and-a-hard-place job description that being prime minister of Zaire has become. On one side is President Mobutu Sese Seko, a power-hoarding autocrat who habitually sacks premiers. On the other, a disciplined rebel army sweeping in from the east, promising to oust the government once it gets to Kinshasa.

On Wednesday night, Mobutu accepted Parliament's nomination of Tshisekedi as prime minister, presidential spokesman Kabuya Lumuna Sando said.

Tshisekedi (pronounced CHEE-sa-kedie) started his opposition to Mobutu's one-party dictatorship in the 1970s, when he quit a cushy position as a Mobutu functionary to campaign for democratic reform.

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