US envoy to query Kabila on refugees

But the officials say he could squander much of his international goodwill unless he addresses reported abuses against Rwandan Hutu refugees more aggressively.

UN efforts to investigate the alleged massacres of refugees have been blocked by forces affiliated with Kabila’s rebel alliance. In recent weeks, there have been reports of mass graves in Kisingani and other towns. Some of the accounts have been provided by missionaries, Red Cross workers and villagers. Congolese officials have called the allegations absurd.US officials said on Monday that the longer UN access is denied, the more it looks like Kabila and his allies have something to hide.

At the same time, the officials believe that alliance forces involved in wrongdoing were acting independently of Kabila. Richardson, who is expected to depart on Thursday, visited central Africa several weeks ago, attempting to negotiate a cease fire during Mobutu’s waning days.

In his upcoming visit, he will stress to Kabila the importance of democratic development, a free market economic policy and the restructuring of the Congolese military into a leaner, more professional force. He will also appeal for continued repatriation of refugees from other central African countries. In addition, a five-member team of officials from the US agency for international development is due to arrive on Tuesday in Kinshasa, the capital, to assess what the United States can do to assist Congo. The team is expected to remain for two to three weeks.

Officials hope that American assistance to the new government of Congo will stimulate other donor countries and international lending institutions to do likewise.

Sharply scaling back earlier estimates, officials believe Congo owes about 400 million dollars to the United States. They raised the possibility that the International Monetary Fund will come up with a package deal involving all donor countries that could permit cancellation or a sharp reduction of Congo’s overall foreign debt.

After lavishing assistance for years on the Mobutu government, the United States now is in the ironic position of helping Kabila overcome Mobutu’s ruinous policies.

During the 1970s and 1980s, successive American administrations backed Mobutu because they saw him as a shield against Soviet expansion in Africa. US assistance to Zaire, as it was then known, dried up shortly after the Cold War ended in 1991. AP