
DATE: Tuesday, May 20, 1997                 TAG: 9705200326

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS 

DATELINE: KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO -  LENGTH:  115 lines

NEW REGIME PUTS OFF ELECTIONSLEADERS OF THE FORMER ZAIRE SAY CITIZENS MUST BE "RE-EDUCATED" BEFORE THEY CAN VOTE

Zaire's new leaders on Monday rejected Western calls for quick elections, saying the country's population must ``awaken politically'' and be ``re-educated'' before such a vote can be held.

Those same leaders also said an interim government would be announced today.

Despite mounting international pressure on Laurent Kabila's rebels to move swiftly to a democratic transition, Kabila's chief deputy, Deogratias Bugera, refused to give a date for the first free polls in the country's history.

``Be patient,'' he said.

``We must awaken the population politically. It is our first duty,'' added Bugera, secretary general of Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, a coalition of ethnic and political groups from the country's eastern region, where the rebellion first erupted.

Throughout the seven-month civil war that ended Saturday with the fall of Kinshasa, the Alliance has required civil servants in captured cities to attend 10-day political indoctrination seminars that combined 1960s-style anti-colonial and Marxist rhetoric with fervent calls for democracy and a market economy.

Bugera used the same jargon at a news conference Monday. He said the political seminars will now be aimed at rural villagers, whom he called ``the collectivity.''

Kabila was expected in the capital this evening, according to South African President Nelson Mandela. ``It seems that everything is going according to plan,'' Mandela said during a visit to Zimbabwe.

In Washington, the Clinton administration announced that it will recognize Kabila's government and immediately accepted the rebel leader's decision to rename the nation Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Most other Western governments have withheld formal recognition of Kabila, who declared himself head of state Saturday, until he creates a government that includes other opposition parties and explains his plans to steer the fractious nation to democracy.

South Africa, which failed in its attempts to broker a cease-fire last week, offered diplomatic recognition Sunday, and Japan hinted that it will do so soon. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, in Vienna, Austria, on a short trip, said the United Nations is prepared to ``work with the new government.''

Zaire's embassies worldwide were moving in fits and starts to recognize the new regime. In Bonn, Germany, 10 to 15 Zairians unfurled a banner at their embassy that read, ``The New Republic of Congo Lives'' and announced they were replacing the old staff. They left, however, when police asked them to go.

In London and Brussels, embassies switched flags and names from ``Zaire'' to ``Congo.'' Some embassy staff members were answering the phone with a new name but saying new flags, letterheads and rubber stamps were still being made.

In Kinshasa, meanwhile, officials of the Alliance attempted to reassure about 500 prominent Kinshasa bankers, traders and other business leaders who packed a hotel ballroom Monday afternoon for their first meeting with the men who overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko's corrupt and corrosive dictatorship.

``We are a government of forgiveness,'' Babi Mbayi, the Alliance's planning minister, said to applause. ``It means we won't chase or hound people. But behind the glove is a steel hand.''

On the streets of the capital, soldiers loyal to the deposed president had little to applaud. Many surrendered in humiliation - some forced to their knees by taunting crowds.

After a weekend of euphoria, the capital was beginning to return to normal Monday, with most shops open and streets choked with traffic. Some differences, however, were notable.

Television news readers who once dutifully read pro-Mobutu propaganda ended newscasts declaring: ``Long live the Democratic Republic of Congo.''

Residents with no jobs to go to gathered for the second straight day at rebel-held military camps. At Camp Mobutu, children, women and men ordered some former soldiers to walk on their knees through a gantlet of taunts.

Inside, a mural of the deposed dictator was pockmarked with bullet holes and graffiti.

While Kabila makes the transition from military commander to head of state, his deposed rival temporarily has holed up in the West African nation of Togo.

Mobutu sought shelter with fellow dictator Gnassingbe Eyadema, who was putting him up in the Togolese capital of Lome, government officials in Togo said on condition of anonymity.

Mobutu fled there after rebels captured his jungle palace in the northern town of Gbadolite, where he took refuge Friday hours before the capital fell. He was expected to eventually head into exile in Morocco or France. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Los Angeles Times and

The Associated Press. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

At the Mobutu Camp in Kinshasa on Monday, a rebel soldier uses force

as he questions two men who were arrested and accused of being

Zairian government soldiers. In Washington, the Clinton

administration said it would recognize Laurent Kabila's government.

Graphics

ZAIRE NO MORE

Zaire's new rulers renamed the country the Democratic Republic of

the Congo. This creates two neighboring Congoes:

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (the former Zaire), with its

capital at Kinshasa.