THE legally dubious dismissal of the Zairean government, engineered by the military, is being described by some politicians as a carefully disguised coup to change the course of the civil war.
Parliament voted to remove the Prime Minister, Mr Kengo wa Dondo, on Monday night. The government dismissed the motion as unconstitutional. But state radio announced yesterday that the Prime Minister has been sacked, leaving sufficient doubt over his status as to strip the cabinet of power.
Mr Kengo was attending a regional summit on the Zaire crisis in Nairobi, where he continued to be accepted as Zaire's Prime Minister. At the conference chaired by the Kenyan President, Mr Daniel arap Moi, African leaders called yesterday for a negotiated end to the war in Zaire which is tearing apart the continent's third largest country.
Members of parliament said a deal was done between the principal opposition parties and the army which has accused Mr Kengo of failing to provide it with the means to fight its losing battle against rebels in the east.
One senior politician said privately that some in the opposition are co operating with a more moderate faction of the military led by the chief of staff, Gen Mahele Leiko Bokungo, in an attempt to forestall a direct takeover by hardline elements of the army.
Gen Mahele tacitly acknowledged a shift in power yesterday when he said the army has taken control of arms purchasing.
France is quietly backing Gen Mahele's faction. French officials say Paris recognises that the ailing President, Mr Mobutu Sese Seko, is a lost cause.
Mr Mobutu has been treated for cancer in Monte Carlo and has remained in Europe most of the time since the revolt began last October. Airport officials at Nice in the south of France said yesterday that Mr Mobutu's plane had arrived and was standing by to take him home. A spokesman said the President was determined to return and make a stand.
The prospect of Mr Laurent Kabila and his rebels seizing control of Zaire sends shudders through the French administration which has proved powerless to halt, let alone reverse, the insurgents tide of victories.
The rebels now stand within striking distance of the rich diamond fields of the central provinces and vast mineral resources of the south. Each rebel victory has been a blow to France's presumption of influence in Africa, which has extended far beyond the continent.
Three years after Paris was given a green light by the UN Security Council to send its troops into Rwanda - which backfired when it was widely seen as a poorly disguised attempt to defend a genocidal regime - France's attempts to persuade the UN that its desire to send its soldiers into Zaire is purely altruistic have fallen flat.