Mobutu In Morocco

Ousted Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko and his family have arrived in the Moroccan capital Rabat aboard three Gabonese aircraft, a senior Moroccan security official said on Sunday.

Mobutu and his family arrived aboard three airplanes discreetly in the Rabat military airport. Mobutu and his family will stay at the 50-room Amphitrite hotel, the official said.

The hotel is situated some 20 km (12 miles) south of Rabat on the Atlantic coast close to the royal palace of Skhirat.

Three Gabonese aircraft transported Mobutu and his family to the Rabat military airport thanks to the cooperation of Moroccan authorities, said the official. He could not say how long Mobutu would be staying in Morocco. Reporters, photographers and television crews had been waiting for Mobutu to arrive at Rabat's civilian airport.

 

Earlier, a Reuters correspondent saw an unusual deployment of security forces around the Amphitrite hotel.

The hotel was booked for Mobutu and his family... Therefore it is now not open to the public, said a Moroccan official. The hotel is near a clean and beautiful Atlantic beach and is close to the highway linking the Moroccan business centre of Casablanca to the political capital of Rabat, where Morocco's King Hassan II lives.