Global Policy Forum

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) swore in most of its new transitional government, which now faces now the daunting task of guiding the war-torn country to its first democratic elections in over 40 years. Each of the main players in DRC's long and arduous peace process -- the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), the Uganda-backed Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), the government in Kinshasa and the political opposition -- is included in the new government.

Each has been given seven ministerial portfolios and four deputy ministries, with 26 of the 34 being sworn in Tuesday in a sombre ceremony that had already been delayed for a day. While no official reason was given for the delay, a source close to the government told AFP that it had been "largely based on the decision by the RCD to unilaterally set up three military zones," one sign among many that peace has still not arrived in this vast central African nation.

The RCD ministers and their deputies did not make the trip for the ceremony from their eastern headquarters city of Goma, saying their security demands had not been met. But all the former rebel leaders including those missing will be on task now to restore peace to the DRC, the vast central African nation that has been riven by war for nearly five years. Both the RCD, backed by Rwanda, and the Ugandan-backed MLC, rose up in August 1998 against then president Laurent Kabila's government.

The arrival in Kinshasa of former rebel leaders and their entourages was greeted with mixed emotions by residents of the capital. Arriving Tuesday, MLC head Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is to be sworn in on Thursday, was greeted by more than 1,500 supporters wearing T-shirts printed with his image.

It was Bemba's first time back in Kinshasa since 1997 when he fled the capital of what was then called Zaire with other stalwarts of the deposed dictator Mobutu Sese Seko at the approach of rebels led by Laurent Kabila, the since assassinated father of President Joseph Kabila. Bemba had been financial adviser to Mobutu, a dictator who helped himself freely to state coffers and spirited billions of dollars out of the mineral-rich country.

Also on Tuesday, Roger Lumbala, head of the Congolese Rally for Democracy - National (RCD-N), flew in from the rebel group's headquarters town of Isiro, Orientale Province, aboard a Ugandan plane, an AFP reporter said. The RCD-N was allied during the civil war with the MLC, the second largest rebel group.

The UN Security Council in January accused the MLC and Lumbala's rebel group of "massacres and systematic violations of human rights" targeting mainly the Pygmies in northeastern Ituri and Nord-Kivu provinces. As Lumbala drove by, some Kinshasa passersby shouted "Murderer!" when they found out who was in the cavalcade, and said, "Has he stopped eating people?"

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