SWITZERLAND promised yesterday to widen a search for the funds of Zaire's embattled ruler, President Mobutu Sese Seko. Berne had previously said a check at Swiss banks had found no trace of Mr Mobutu's controversial fortune, estimated by Swiss and British media to total about $4 billion.
The Federal Banking Commission, the country's banking watchdog, said it would expand its search in coming days, but suggested it was unlikely to find much wealth.
"I can't imagine that today any Swiss bank would still have money from Mobutu. Such a bank would be extremely silly," Mr Kurt Hauri, president of the independent commission, said in a veiled warning to bankers who may still have Mr Mobutu's accounts.
"It should be in the interests of banks to be intelligent enough not to have money from a man like Mobutu. That would be extremely bad for the banks' reputation."
Mr Hauri said his watchdog would nevertheless expand its search that has been limited so far to an informal check at big banks.
"The Banking Commission will expand the survey. We will order a more in-depth survey to include other banks in the next few days," he said.
When asked, Swiss bankers regularly say they know nothing of Mr Mobutu's funds.
But domestic critics suspect the worst of banks, whose accounts for such toppled dictators as Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Haiti's Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier have been the subject of long legal battles.
The German-language Swiss newspaper, SonntagsZeitung, said at the weekend that Mr Mobutu's son, Kongolo, used Swiss banks to transact big deals for his trading firm's exports of tonnes of commodities like diamonds, gold and copper for its own account.
The Foreign Ministry in Berne reiterated that it could look into freezing any accounts of Mr Mobutu only if a request came from Zairean authorities. But in a softening of its stance, it suggested that any new government in Zaire could get a quick hearing. The rebel forces who are pressing on to the capital Kinshasa have already asked Switzerland to freeze Mr Mobutu's fortune.
. Four people were killed and six badly injured in a bomb explosion last night in Kinshasa river port, aboard a ferry arriving from Brazzaville, the Zairean information ministry said.
The Information Minister, Mr Kin-Kieg Mulumba, said the explosion was caused by a bomb which went off on the last boat arriving from the Congolese capital. He said the boat waas the Matadi which makes the crossing twice a day carrying passengers, freight and vehicles.