A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

vernment will legitimize the growth of extreme right movements across the contin

ent . He has mapped out a vision for a free-market revolution in one of Western 

Europe 's most socialistic states that surpasses in scope anything attempted by 

his conservative role models , former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher a

nd former president Ronald Reagan . And he has declared that , at least for the 

time being , he will govern the country while maintaining a vast business empire

 with holdings in real estate , insurance , press and television raising the spe

cter of conflicting personal interests with almost every legislative measure he 

tries to push through Parliament . Berlusconi 's opponents accused him of using 

his three television networks , which control about 45 percent of the national a

udience , to `` brainwash '' voters and secure his victory in the general electi

ons . He , in turn , believes they are jealous of his success in finding a succe

ssful formula that rallied the vast majority of young Italian voters behind the 

free-enterprise banner waved by his Forza Italia party . `` I know the young gen

eration well . They grew up seeing America through the television shows that I b

rought to Europe . They have come to believe in the meritocratic philosophy that

 will help us develop a more liberal and free-market society without losing our 

cultural roots or traditions . `` Young people everywhere now share the same pol

itical values . The French may be very jealous about their identity , but Italia

ns have no complexes , no feelings of inferiority or superiority . We are more e

cumenical . '' Nonetheless , the unprecedented sight of seeing a media tycoon ac

hieve a sudden leap to the pinnacle of political power has alarmed some of Italy

 's neighbors . `` This is an approach to democracy we are not used to and that 

appears fearsome to me , '' said French President Francois Mitterrand , pointing

 to the demagogic risks of seeing the boss of a $ 6 billion media conglomerate t

ake the reins of a major European government . `` This is an example that others

 will try to imitate . There is a serious risk of perverting democracy . The mom

ent has come to say : Stop ! Danger ! '' Berlusconi brushes off Mitterrand 's wa

rning as the kind of partisan carping he must endure from Italy 's former commun

ists and their leftist allies throughout Europe . `` I have no operational role 

anymore in any of my companies . I am completely removed from their activities ,

 '' he said . `` There is one difficulty and that is how to sell my group . If y

ou know somebody who is interested , please tell me . '' Berlusconi said he was 

forced to enter the political arena when centrist reformers such as Mario Segni 

, a maverick Christian Democrat , failed to organize an effective coalition that

 could block the path to power by the leftist alliance led by former communists 

. `` I had a very interesting and entertaining life , and I had no desire to cha

nge it . But I found my country facing a future without liberty or democracy . I

 was obliged to go into politics against the advice of my family , my friends an

d , above all , against my own interests . But I realized my life as an entrepre

neur would have become impossible under the communists , whose program would hav

e led my country into a terrible state without any hope of return . '' Indeed , 

Berlusconi 's empire , now close to $ 3 billion in debt , probably would have co

llapsed if the leftist slate had been elected . Achille Occhetto , the leader of

 the former communists , had vowed to strip Berlusconi of his lucrative televisi

on stations . But Berlusconi insists he was motivated by more than the fate of h

is own business interests . `` I went into politics to keep my country from fall

ing into the hands of the communists , '' he said . `` That 's what I mean by wa

ging war for my country . Their program would have led the country into a terrib

le state , with no hope of return . In their spirit , their mentality , their cu

lture , it 's a vision of the world that has not changed . ''

 NAIROBI , Kenya With the world community horrified by the bloodshed in Rwanda b

ut paralyzed by confusion , indecision or fear , many aid officials , human righ

ts advocates and Africa watchers now are hoping for a victory by rebel forces to

 end the tumult . Such a scenario now seems likely , with the Rwandan Patriotic 

Front ( RPF ) rebels improving their positions in neighborhoods around the capit

al , Kigali , while advancing on the town of Gitarama , headquarters of the Rwan

da 's rump government . Reports said the rebels were moving this weekend on Gita

rama from two fronts , while government soldiers and allied militiamen were flee

ing westward toward Kibuya , on Lake Kivu . With the rebels occupying large part

s of Kigali , including the international airport , the fall of Gitarama would m

ake a complete victory for the rebels all but certain , leaving them in control 

of most of the country except the west and southwest . That would allow the rebe

ls to dictate the terms of a cease-fire and would leave them in a position to tr

y to form a government . Many who have been watching Rwanda 's horror say a rebe

l victory would relieve foreign governments of witnessing mass slaughter while f

ailing to muster the political will to try to stop it . `` There is some thinkin

g that if the rebels win , maybe that would take care of the problem for now , '

' said Pauline Baker , a scholar on Africa with the Washington office of the Asp

en Institute . Baker said some African policy makers were harking back to the ``

 Ethiopian scenario '' of May 1991 , when the Bush administration virtually invi

ted an advancing guerrilla army to enter the Ethiopian capital , Addis Ababa , a

s a way of ending that country 's long civil war while providing for an orderly 

transition after the fall of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam . Another Rwanda sch

olar , interviewed in Brussels , said a rebel victory `` is what everybody is ho

ping for . '' But this scholar , who asked not to be quoted by name , said that 

policy may in the long term prove `` very unwise , '' since it was unclear how t

he rebels , representing Rwanda 's long-oppressed Tutsi minority , would be able

 to form a broadly representative government . `` The RPF looks like the angel i

n this thing , '' she said . `` But to let the RPF win creates another Burundi ,

 where you have a tiny minority in charge . '' The populations of both Rwanda an

d Burundi are about 85 percent Hutu and 15 percent Tutsi . In Rwanda , the Hutus

 have held political power since they overthrew the Tutsi monarchy and achieved 

independence from Belgium three decades ago . In Burundi , the minority Tutsis d

ominated the country after independence through their control of the armed force

s , and only last year surrendered power in democratic elections to a Hutu-led g

overnment . Seven weeks ago , both countries were thrown into chaos when their t

wo presidents died in a suspicious plane crash while returning from a regional p

eace meeting . Rwanda erupted in killings of Tutsis-mostly by armed Hutu civilia

n militias , supported by the army and encouraged by a Hutu-controlled radio sta

tion . U.N. spokesmen have estimated that at least 200,000 people have been kill

ed , mostly Tutsis but also Hutus opposed to the slain president or suspected of

 being disloyal to his dominant political machine . The bodies of the dead have 

been stacked up in churches and along the roadside , buried in mass graves or si

mply dropped into the Kagera River . Thousands of corpses have floated to Lake V

ictoria , raising fears of widespread pollution at the source of the Nile River 

. After the outbreak of the massacres , which most aid officials and U.N. diplom

ats have termed genocide , the rebels launched their drive on the capital to end

 the bloodshed and bring to justice those responsible for the killings . When th

e Security Council earlier this month agreed to the dispatch of 5,500 U.N. troop

s to Rwanda , the rebels initially balked , saying the foreigners might interfer

e with victory by the front . They have since said the troops could come if they

 limited their activities to protecting humanitarian relief . But the arrival of

 the foreign troops looks further off than ever , with U.N. Secretary General Bo

utros Boutros-Ghali admitting that he had failed to persuade more than a handful

 of countries to contribute soldiers . Only Ghana , Ethiopia and Senegal have ma

de firm offers , and Italy said it would be willing to join in a U.N. peacekeepi

ng operation . But most countries , including the United States and Africa 's tr

aditional West European patrons , have shown reluctance to get involved . Follow

ing last year 's disastrous experience with international peacemaking in Somalia

 , many governments including the Clinton administration fear being drawn into w

hat is essentially an African civil war , in which the foreign troops , like tho

se in Somalia , may shift from being neutral peacekeepers to combatants . `` I t

hink there 's a sense of moral outrage , but at the same time , a kind of paraly

sis , '' said Alison Des Forges , a consultant with Human Rights Watch/Africa . 

`` Everybody is looking to the United States for leadership , but the United Sta

tes is not providing leadership . '' Somalia , she said , `` has been a formativ

e experience in the early days of this administration . '' After the humiliation

 in Somalia , in which U.S. troops engaged in a futile and bloody manhunt for a 

Somali factional leader through the streets of Mogadishu , President Clinton rev

ersed his earlier enthusiasm for involving American troops in U.N. military oper

ations and issued a directive laying out strict conditions for future U.S. parti

cipation . Rwanda , according to Baker of Aspen Institute , has become `` the fi

rst test case '' of the Clinton directive . `` There 's no one exerting any lead

ership to bring about a consensus '' on how to intervene effectively in Rwanda ,

 Baker said . `` The major issue is a lack of will to search for ideas collectiv

ely . Any solution is going to have great risks attached to it . And that 's the

 key : No one wants to take those risks . ''

 PORT ELIZABETH , South Africa It has taken nine years , but finally Nyameke Gon

iwe received formal acknowledgment Saturday that the state ordered the brutal mu

rder of her husband . In a wood-paneled courtroom here , a Supreme Court judge e

nded years of official denials and cover-up by declaring that South Africa 's se

curity forces , in defense of white rule , assassinated anti-apartheid activist 

Matthew Goniwe and three of his colleagues on a deserted stretch of highway in J

une 1985 . The killers , said the judge , meant to defeat the mass uprising of t

he 1980s by eliminating one of its most important leaders , who had turned the e

astern Cape region into a hotbed of resistance . `` It has , in my opinion , bee

n established prima facie that the murderers .. . were members of the security f

orces , '' Judge Neville Zietsman said at the end of a 14-month inquest . The ki

llings , once officially attributed to unknown persons , were revisited after a 

disgruntled officer two years ago leaked what appeared to have been the assassin

ation order : a state security memo recommending that Goniwe and the others be `

` permanently removed from society , as a matter of urgency . '' Listening to Zi

etsman 's finding , Nyameke Goniwe sat very still , as she had sat through every

 session of the inquest . Then she walked quickly out of the courtroom , emotion

s held tightly in check . `` The critical thing is for us to know who did what ,

 and the judge just confirmed for us what we believed all along , '' she said . 

`` You must understand that our lives have revolved around this case for nine ye

ars . '' Cases like the Goniwe murder present a delicate problem to the fledglin

g democracy led by President Nelson Mandela , who must balance deeply felt calls

 for restitution with the theme of national reconciliation that he has sounded r

epeatedly since his election three weeks ago as South Africa 's first black lead

er . Saturday 's verdict seems to be only the start of a long , traumatic proces

s of exhuming the buried skeletons of this country 's apartheid past , as offici

al files are opened and secret documents thought to have been shredded surface .

 Estimates of officially mandated killings of opponents of the state as well as 

the wanton massacres of civilians by operatives in the state security system run

 into the thousands . Mandela , worried about possible sabotage of his fragile n

ew black-led government by the white-dominated security forces , pledged Friday 

a blanket amnesty for political crimes committed in the defense of apartheid . `

` There will be .. . no vengeance , no witch-hunts , no revenge and no humiliati

on , '' said his new justice minister , Dullah Omar . Amnesty seekers must , how

ever , disclose their crimes in full , he said , and government will provide uns

pecified compensation to victims . The sensational murder of Matthew Goniwe unde

rlined the desperate `` total onslaught '' strategy employed in the 1980s by the

 P.W. Botha government , which sought to save rapidly disintegrating apartheid s

tructures by creating an elaborate state security system with virtually unlimite

d powers . ( Begin optional trim ) The charismatic Goniwe , a bespectacled 37-ye

ar-old schoolteacher , was targeted because he pioneered a community organizing 

system based on a network of street committees . As chief rural organizer for th

e United Democratic Front the internal , legal arm of the banned African Nationa

l Congress he created an organizational web so dense that an entire township cou

ld be mobilized in minutes for a rally , a strike or a rent boycott . Goniwe 's 

telephone was tapped and security agents followed his every move , court papers 

show . `` He was .. . referred to as an enemy of the state whose activities had 

to be curtailed or terminated , '' Zietsman said Saturday . By 1985 the entire c

ountry was in turmoil . On June 7 of that year , according to the leaked militar

y document , Gen. Stoffel van der Westhuizen , who would remain as director of m

ilitary intelligence until several weeks ago , sent the message suggesting the `

` permanent '' removal of Goniwe , his brother , Mbulelo , and his friend Fort C

alata . But Goniwe 's brother was not with him 20 days later , when he headed ho

me to Cradock from this coastal city after another UDF meeting . Riding in the c

ar with him were Calata and two others , Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli . ( E

nd optional trim ) According to the inquest , security forces no specific indivi

duals have yet been identified stopped Goniwe and his colleagues . They shot and

 stabbed Sparrow Mkonto , and stabbed the othersthrough the heart and about thei

r bodies . Security police , anxious to conceal the crime , burned the bodies an

d the car . The charred remains were found scattered over a wide area in the fol

lowing days . `` For years I didn't want to pass that spot where it happened , '

' Nyameke Goniwe said . `` You could still see the marks on the ground today ; g

rass has not even grown there . '' Charges of government involvement in the kill

ings were quickly dismissed ; an inquest by a local magistrate returned a verdic

t of murder by persons unknown . But as the reopened inquest drew to a close , v

an der Westhuizen , at less than 50 years of age , suddenly announced several we

eks ago that he was retiring as chief of military intelligence . He cited ill he

alth . Others implicated have mostly retired with large pensions from the govern

ment of President Frederik W. de Klerk , who now serves as one of Mandela 's two

 deputies . The state prosecutor , Michael Hodgen said that all the victims ' fa

milies could do now was file civil lawsuits against the government for damages ,

 although the proposed amnesty may make that impossible . ( Optional add end ) N

yameke Goniwe said presidential calls for forgiveness and reconciliation were al

l well and good , `` but the killers have not even admitted they did anything wr

ong . '' `` The families have lost everything , and the perpetrators are gaining

 from it , '' she said . `` We want to celebrate with everybody the new beginnin

g of a new country , but this has been holding us back . ''

 WASHINGTON President Clinton 's foreign policy difficulties may be igniting wid

espread criticism of his national security team , but at least one top official 

is escaping most of the heat : Defense Secretary William J. Perry . In the past 

four months , the soft-spoken former mathematics professor has emerged as one of

 the administration 's few pleasant surprises in the foreign policy arena . Besi

des getting a grip on the Pentagon 's sprawling bureaucracy and gaining the resp

ect of the military Perry , 66 , has become a quiet but important player in the 

administration 's foreign policy apparatus , gradually winning plaudits from the

 administration and its critics alike . It was Perry , for example , who helped 

hone the administration 's proposal to launch air strikes in Bosnia limiting the

 enforcement to a small exclusion zone that NATO forces could handle easily . He

 was the administration 's point man in engineering a nuclear weapons disarmamen

t treaty between Russia and Ukraine . And , more recently , he has become its ch

ief spokesman in the stalemate with North Korea over nuclear weapons inspections

 . With few glitches along the way , Perry `` is dealing with the problems he 's

 got as well as anyone can be expected to , '' said Robert W. Gaskin , a former 

Pentagon military strategist who has been a frequent critic of the administratio

n . Sharing that opinion is Harold Brown , who served as defense secretary durin

g the Carter administration . `` Is he going to solve all of their problems ? I 

think the answer is no , '' Brown said . `` But he has done very well . '' Admit

tedly , at least part of Perry 's overnight rise may have come by default . By s

ome outside assessments , Secretary of State Warren Christopher has proved a cap

able negotiator but not a strategic thinker , and national security adviser Anth

ony Lake has been so low-key that he has failed to enunciate the administration 

's policies clearly . Perry is known as a problem-solver , and he explains issue

s articulately and directly . He also has benefited from the inevitable comparis

ons to his predecessor , Les Aspin . Aspin 's plans to inject the Pentagon into 

formulating broad foreign policy brought him into conflict with the State Depart

ment and the National Security Council . His frequent public ruminating about po

licy options and his accompanying gaffes heightened the perception that the admi

nistration was in disarray . And his manipulative style alienated many in Congre

ss and the military . By contrast , Perry is demonstrating himself to be a no-no

nsense pragmatist who is quick to make decisions and has an impressive command o

f detail . Invariably straightforward , he has restored good relations with mili

tary leaders and lawmakers . `` He has the complete confidence of the military h

e 's frank , '' said Rep. John P. Murtha , D-Pa. , chairman of the House Appropr

iations subcommittee on defense . `` I think he 's doing a commendable job . '' 

Others say he has quietly brought order out of the previous managerial chaos . `

` Perry is nothing that Aspin was , and everything that Aspin wasn't , '' one Pe

ntagon-watcher said . He also has confined himself to the defense secretary 's t

raditional role of running the nation 's military establishment and finding ways

 to make it serve the president 's foreign policy objectives . Sometimes that me

ans squelching a proposal that seems unrealistically ambitious . For instance , 

administration officials say he recently nipped a campaign to mount an invasion 

of Haiti by publicly questioning what the United States would do once its troops

 took over the island . ( Begin optional trim ) To be sure , Perry 's four month

s as secretary have not been entirely error-free . In an appearance on NBC 's ``

 Meet the Press '' program in early April , he set off a major brouhaha by inadv

ertently leaving the impression that the United States would sit by and let the 

Bosnian Serbs storm the Muslim city of Gorazde . And a few weeks ago , he provok

ed a similar flurry over Haiti when he suggested there were preliminary indicati

ons that the island 's military strongman , Gen. Raoul Cedras , was about to res

ign . The political and diplomatic ripples from that incident caused some conste

rnation in the State Department , but so far Perry seems to have recovered succe

ssfully , vowing to become more careful in his statements to the news media . ( 

End optional trim ) A veteran of the Cuban missile crisis he was called in by th

e Pentagon in 1962 to help analyze data on Soviet weapons emplacements on the is

land Perry has a keen sense of the moment , especially about developments that h

elp mark the end of the Cold War . A visit to a former Soviet ICBM center last s

pring left him emotion-filled and eager to tell the world about his experience ,

 as did a NATO meeting last week with former Soviet bloc states . With a long ca

reer in the defense industry he is known as the godfather of the Stealth bomber 

and a background in U.S.-Soviet strategy , high-technology weapons and defense-i

ndustry problems , Perry said he has already set a firm agenda for his current t

erm as defense secretary : to keep the world from drifting back into a Cold War 

, to develop a new approach for using U.S. military power in the post-Cold War w

orld and to manage the reduction in the size of the nation 's armed forces . `` 

I will measure myself '' by these `` when I leave the job , '' he said . ( Optio

nal Add End ) Critics concede he has made a good start on the first of these , p