U.S. Envoy to Press for Probe in Congo

U.S. Ambassador Bill Richardson said he was leaving for Central and East Africa with slim hopes of persuading President Laurent Kabila’s Congo to allow a stalled U.N. human rights mission to investigate alleged massacres of Rwandan refugees. Richardson plans to begin his five-day trip in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, then go to Angola, Rwanda, Kenya, Eritrea and Ethiopia, where he is to talk to leaders of the Organization of African Unity. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this month recalled leaders of the human rights team after they had spent nearly six weeks in Kinshasa without being able to start their probe of the alleged massacres.