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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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