CONGO: Eastern Congo in is the grip of elite criminal networks, says the UN. Declan Walsh reports from Uvira, where the Mayi-Mayi, an army that believes in magic, holds sway
Four years of bloody war have offered few reasons to celebrate in Uvira, a bedraggled fishing town in eastern Congo. But when a line of dirty, ragged soldiers known as the Mayi-Mayi descended from the surrounding hills just over three weeks ago, there was an explosion of joy.
According to residents, women ran into the streets waving coloured cloths and crying, "Welcome to our liberators!" Bursts of gunfire rent the air. "It was like the bible scene where Jesus enters Jerusalem," recalled Clement Lyamu, a 24-year-old student.
A week later, Uvira experienced a second "liberation". Troops from the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD-Goma), Congo's largest rebel group, regained control without a fight. A wave of looting and repression followed.
The rebel soldiers looted neighbourhoods at gunpoint, robbing mattresses, bicycles, mobile phones and even babies' clothes. About 100 suspected Mayi-Mayi collaborators were arrested, beaten and locked up. Scores of young townsmen fled for the hills.
"That time, it seemed that a wake had started," said Mr Lyamu, one of the many residents who cowered from the attacks in their houses.
In Congo, peace is promised but war continues. An agreement between President Joseph Kabila and Rwanda, which started the war in 1998, was signed last July. It has already produced some fruits. Rwanda has pulled out 23,000 troops. And the three foreign armies propping up the shaky government forces - from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia - officially packed their bags last week.
Then yesterday, President Kabila's police started to round up Rwandan Hutus living in Kinshasa and suspected of organising the 1994 genocide - a central demand of the Rwandan government. The move is another confidence-building measure towards forming a transitional government and, eventually, the country's first elections since independence in 1960.
But in the conflict-cursed east, peace appears a distant dream. Far behind the now-quiet front line, the government-rebel war has spawned a complicated web of smaller conflicts that show no sign of abating. The largest involves the Mayi-Mayi, a militia previously written off as violent, magic-obsessed bandits that is emerging as a serious fighting force.
A loose confederation of Congolese fighters united by warlords, the Mayi-Mayi are united by tribe and a belief in magic. Many wear charms and, before battle, fighters sprinkle themselves with water which they say will fend off enemy bullets.
But due to an undisguised hate for the RCD among Congolese villagers - after years of rape, theft and murder - the Mayi-Mayi have become a popular self-defence force.
"The Mayi-Mayi, it is all of us. It is our sons and our daughters. They will liberate our country from the RCD occupation," explained one community leader in Uvira.
Hatred for the RCD is matched only by contempt for its Rwandan sponsors, who have systematically plundered the Congo's natural wealth - including diamonds, gold and coltan, a precious mineral used to make mobile phones - and carted it back to Rwanda.
And according to a recent UN report, the departing foreign armies - including those of Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Uganda - have left behind "elite criminal networks" to continue plundering.
The Mayi-Mayi also stand accused of serious human rights abuses. Five women were raped and an old man killed after they entered Uvira. By the Congo's awful standards, it was a relatively low toll.
Locals say the Mayi-Mayi were well behaved for the remainder of their week-long stay - so much so they even cleared their bar bill. "I couldn't believe it," said the owner of Grand Lac restaurant, who is still owed €2,000 by the RCD.
As peace talks in South Africa stumble forward, the casualties of Africa's largest ever war continue to mount. Over 2.5 million people are estimated to have died.