In desperation, President Mobutu has fired his new prime minister and replaced him with an army general as rebels advance on Lubumbashi. World leaders unimpressed with Motubu's rule say, "it's over." A background report is followed by a panel discussion.

SIRAH SHAH: Rebel soldiers in control of what remains of Kisangani Airport. Government officials, senior army officers, and Eastern European mercenaries fled before the rebels struck. Some abandoned their weapons. The rebels are said to have been welcomed by Kisangani residents. In the capital, the news sent the cabinet into a closed-door meeting today, but they came up with no new plan to reassert authority, and increasing numbers of Kinshasa residents now say that they too would welcome the rebels.

Zaire’s aging leader, Mobutu Sese Seko, has left his villa in the South of France for hospital in Monaco. His prostate cancer is said to be worsening. It’s now possible that army officers, loyal so long, will overthrow his impotent government and maybe try to negotiate with the rebels. But the rebels seen here in the town of Goma are now heading deeper into the wealthy province of Shaba, which previously tried to secede. At the moment they’re popular, but they have been brutal as they’ve advanced.

ALEX THOMPSON, ITN: Aid agencies accuse the rebel leader, Laurent Kabila, of deliberately hindering the humanitarian operation. Today the UN accused his troops of massacring Rwandan Hutu refugees. The report details 40 mass graves in Kivu Province, all from massacres in the past year. At Kibumbo Refugee Camp 37 bodies have been found, and at Katale Camp 143 corpses have been discovered. But the rebels’ focus is on taking more towns towards Lumbumbashi, Zaire’s second city. Yesterday there were open protests in the capital Kinshasa against President Mobutu’s dictatorship.

The rebels are advancing, claiming to have groups within 200 miles of the city. Government troops simply fade away. Peace talks in South Africa have adjourned. Zaire is disappearing into history after just 25 years as the rebels advance, renaming the country Congo as quickly as they seize it.

ALEX THOMPSON: In reality, Zaire has no government. Last night a TV news flash announced the state of emergency. This afternoon another news flash saying Prime Minister Tshisekedi was now replaced by an army general, Mecular Belongo. In effect, it is marshal law. Finally this afternoon the U.S. State Department announced they’d pulled the plug and sent out their spokesman to say the era of Mobutuism in Zaire is over.

NICK BURNS, State Department: The culture of authoritarianism must disappear. Certainly it’s time for dictatorship to end. And Zaire’s leaders cannot live in the past. What we are seeking is an orderly transition to democracy through elections. That is the only way to ensure stability.

ALEX THOMPSON: The truckloads of soldiers of Laurent Kabila’s rebel alliance also agree the time’s up for Mobutu and his cronies. They’re recruiting youngsters by the score across the vast swathe of Eastern Zaire currently under their control. All they want, says Kabila, is Mobutu out and free elections within the year if he’s leaving.

LAURENT KABILA: The hope is that the other side, the Mobutu side, will realize that this is a time to put an end to the military confrontation, and then they have to relinquish power.

ALEX THOMPSON: Since October, Kabila’s rebels have swept from Goma to Kisangani, with barely a fight from there South to the rich diamond-producing belt. On Friday they took Mjubi Maya, and today, amid gunfire, walked into Lubumbashi, the country’s second city.