Under the late Mobutu Sese Seko he was an officer, earning enough to keep his family alive.
The government in Kinshasa has had little control over the east since the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997.
The Mai Mai were set up in the late 1990's by Laurent Kabila, shortly after he overthrew President Mobutu Sese Seko.
Mr Kabila could do with some of that, after the criticism he has received since he took over Congo from the late Mobutu Sese Seko.
The two countries first invaded the country in 1996 to drive Mobutu Sese Seko from power and install Laurent Kabila as president.
At a party hosted by one of Mobutu Sese Seko's crooked lieutenants, Michela Wrong failed to drain her glass of pink champagne swiftly enough.
When, in 1997, the Congolese rebels, led by Laurent Kabila, were poised to overthrow the late Mobutu Sese Seko, South Africa tried to mediate.
But Rwandan-backed rebels did take Kinshasa once before, in 1997, sweeping away the old dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, and installing Mr Kabila's elephantine father, Laurent.
ECONOMIST: The UN may send more troops to Congo. Would they do any good?
But the killing is nothing like as relentless or large-scale as it was in the years immediately after President Mobutu Sese Seko's fall in 1997.
The first handover of money in Mr de Villepin's presence occurred in 1995, he said, involving 10m francs from the then Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko.
Some years ago in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, then President Mobutu Sese Seko adopted a controversial policy of putting an infected village in quarantine.
Some Congolese recall the unquestioned support western governments gave to the young Mobutu Sese Seko in the 1960s, helping keep the brutal kleptocrat in power for decades.
Dr Kabamba's hospital is healthier than it was during the war, or under Mobutu Sese Seko, the leopardskin-hatted crook who ruled Congo until his overthrow in 1997.
Mende said the arrested men also had links to former Congolese strongman Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled the country, then known as Zaire, for more than three decades.
He could attract the followers of his fallen allies: Hutus from Rwanda, the late Mobutu Sese Seko's presidential guard from Congo, exiled supporters of Congo-Brazzaville's ex-President Pascal Lissouba.
Then President Mobutu Sese Seko was pushing his authenticity campaign.
BENI, Zaire (CNN) -- Zairian rebels fought Sunday for control of the last town held by government troops in eastern Zaire as their campaign to oust President Mobutu Sese Seko intensified.
CNN: Rebels thrust toward last government-held town in E. Zaire
The rebels are a complex mixture, including Rwandan troops, Tutsis from eastern Congo, remnants of the old army of Mobutu Sese Seko, the man deposed by Mr Kabila last year, and ex-supporters of Mr Kabila, both military and civilian.
After listening to the sharp exchange between Gates and Easterly, Wolfowitz conceded that much aid money has been misused he cited Mobutu Sese Seko, the former ruler of Zaire, who reportedly pocketed five billion dollars from aid agencies, including the World Bank.
In 1996 a rebel army from eastern Congo marched a thousand miles across the lush country to depose Mobutu Sese Seko he of the leopard skin fez whose regime had been badly weakened by the winding down of Western support after the cold war.
Under international law the host country, then Zaire, now once again Congo, should have provided security for the refugees, and separated the fighters, but the late Mobutu Sese Seko was the Hutus' ally, happy to leave them armed and close to the border.
To the United Nations, the Americans and the European Union, peace means a ceasefire followed by negotiations between the crumbling government of President Mobutu Sese Seko and the rebel forces, led by Laurent Kabila, which now control the eastern third of the country.
In the past, this strategy has led Lundin to establish operations in South Africa during the apartheid period, when many companies were coming under shareholder and other pressures to pull out, and in Zaire during the presidency of Sese Seko Mobutu.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The Dirty Dozen #10: Lundin Petroleum
应用推荐