DR Congo: The roadside throng roared as it parted to allow the luxury four- wheel drive to inch forward. Young soldiers jogged alongside, swinging submachine guns and grenade launchers. Cheering children surged forward. A choir burst into song.
Out of the jeep's sunroof stood Thomas Lubanga, the lanky rebel leader at the heart of Congo's latest bloody crisis. Flashing a toothy grin, he acknowledged the waves of applause with a presidentialstyle wave.
This was not what we had been promised. Last month Mr Lubanga's Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia took control of Bunia, the capital of embattled Ituri district, after an orgy of bloodshed that left over 400 bodies littering the streets. Both Mr Lubanga's Hema fighters, and their Lendu enemies, committed atrocities including mutilation, looting and mass killings.
This week the UPC offered to bring us on patrol to demonstrate their control of the surrounding countryside. Instead we were brought to the gold-trading town of Iga Barriere, where we found a carefully orchestrated show of support.Stewards wearing nametags lined the roadside. A brass band blasted the Congolese national anthem. And Mr Lubanga spoke with the rhetoric of a seasoned politician.
"We say to all the tribes of Ituri that the important thing is peace and love," he said from the makeshift podium in front of a bar.
The real basis of his power, however, was standing directly below him - two young soldiers holding eight feet of machine gun ammunition, like a deadly Christmas garland.
Mr Lubanga is trying hard to court international opinion. Following last month's massacres, an emergency force of 1,400 UN troops, led by France, is being deployed to impose peace. Some Irish soldiers may participate.
When the multinational force starts to arrive, probably by next Monday, they will have orders to use deadly force if necessary. If they are seen to breach the peace in Bunia, Mr Lubanga's men could become targets.
So before they land, Mr Lubanga wants to efface the UPC's image as a two-bit band of ethnic killers. He has already started a clean-up. Nearly all his child soldiers, about 60 per cent of his troops, have been withdrawn to barracks.
But the possibility of confrontation still looms large. Although the multinational force's mandate does not explicitly mention it, many observers say that disarmament of all armed groups in Ituri is vital for peace.
But Mr Lubanga says he will not disarm. Any attempt to force him to do so, he warned earlier this week, would lead to an "explosive situation".