Tender Into Tinder

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THE SPARK THIS TIME WAS A NEW BANK NOTE THAT testified by its denomination alone to decades of misrule in Zaire: 5 million zaires, valued at a purported % $2. The bill was floated by the country's long-ruling and long-embattled dictator Mobutu Sese Seko -- and was promptly declared worthless by his rival in a power standoff, transitional Premier Etienne Tshisekedi. Most merchants refused to accept the disputed tender. When Zairian soldiers were paid with it, they went on an armed rampage, looting shops and the homes of several thousand Europeans who live in the former Belgian colony.

As many as 50 civilians were killed in the violence, including at least seven foreigners. Among them: French Ambassador Philippe Bernard, 61, who apparently died in a machine-gun attack on his embassy as he watched the disturbances. On Friday, Paris and Brussels dispatched a combined force of 700 troops to the region to protect and possibly evacuate their nationals.