Absolutely nothing, certainly not to the Congolese who have now endured five years of foreign-backed invasions of their national territory.

In the early 1990s, after decades of support from the international community during the Cold War, Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko lost the support of his closest foreign allies because of increasing concerns about human rights abuses and corruption in Zaire. France, Belgium and the U.S. had for years cushioned his dictatorial regime with military and financial assistance, but once they pulled back, international financial institutions and donors followed suit, plunging Zaire into isolation.

Meanwhile decades of mismanagement and the predatory abuse of public funds and state-owned enterprises meant that the economy was on its knees. By the mid-nineties, Mobutu's regime was not only severely weakened, but had become an embarrassment to the international community, which had so long supported him. In September, 1996, four rebel groups based in eastern Zaire formed a coalition, the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL). With the support of neighboring Uganda and Rwanda, the AFDL mounted a military campaign aimed at overthrowing the Mobutu government, and Laurent Kabila, a little known rebel leader with communist ideals, eventually emerged as its leader.

In May 1997, after a lightning military campaign, the AFDL reached the capital Kinshasa. Mobutu fled, and Kabila declared himself president, and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mobutu's departure was widely celebrated and Kabila's arrival in power initially greeted with enthusiasm. Domestically, the feeling was that after 30 years of dictatorial rule, the future could only be brighter, while the international community seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that the unsightly Mobutu era had finally come to an end.

But Laurent Kabila's honeymoon on the international scene was to be short-lived. Almost immediately he cracked down on the political opposition, banning all political parties but his own. Then the international community demanded an inquiry into the disappearance of up to 200,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees who had fled the advancing AFDL and Rwandan troops and were widely believed to have been massacred by them. This cast a dark shadow over Kabila, and the international community began to distance itself from the new Congolese government. Anticipated foreign aid necessary to revive the ailing national economy failed to materialize as donors attached conditions of democratization to its resumption.

At the same time, divisions began emerging between his government and its Rwandan and Ugandan allies, in particular over the Kabila government's failure to stem violence in the eastern part of the country where the Rwandan Hutu militia, the Interahamwe, responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which up to 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed, was continuing to operate. When Kabila announced in late July, 1998 that he was expelling all foreign, i.e. Rwandan troops, the rupture was complete.

On August 2, 1998, Congolese and Rwandan troops staged simultaneous uprisings in military camps in Kinshasa and Goma, which soon turned into all-out war. Only the last-minute intervention of Zimbabwean, Angolan and Namibian troops saved the Kabila government from being overthrown.

In the east, a Rwandan-backed group calling itself the Rally for Congolese Democracy claimed responsibility for the military campaign to oust Kabila. A second rebel movement, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) backed by Uganda emerged several months later in the northwestern province of Equateur.

Although Rwandan and Ugandan troops were clearly present on Congolese territory, both initially denied that they were involved in the war, and only later justified their presence in Congo on the basis of their security concerns in eastern Congo where a hodgepodge of rebel groups hostile to their regimes were operating. The international community accepted Rwanda and Uganda's explanation. Over the course of 1998/1999, foreign-backed movements advanced in the east, capturing virtually half of the country.

From the start Kabila denounced the war as Rwandan and Ugandan aggression, rejecting the legitimacy of the RCD and the MLC as autonomous rebel groups, sentiments widely echoed by the Congolese population in government and rebel held areas. In spite of strong evidence of the rebel group's unpopularity, and growing evidence that Rwanda and Uganda were also involved in the large-scale exploitation of Congolese resources in areas under their control, Kabila's repeated appeals to the international community remained unheeded.

Although all the parties signed the Lusaka peace accord in 1999, fighting continued through the following year. Meanwhile, angry with the international community, Kabila became more and more intransigent, refusing to allow United Nations military observers to deploy. The situation, it seemed, had reached a stalemate. But when Kabila was assassinated on January 16, it soon became clear that the situation was going to change.

Since then and under the presidency of Joseph Kabila, there has been significant progress in implementing the Lusaka peace accord on all sides. In February, all parties to the war agreed to withdraw nine miles from the frontline, an agreement that has since been respected by all the parties with the exception of Jean Pierre Bemba's Front for the Liberation of Congo (FLC) in Equateur province.

Joseph Kabila's accession to the presidency also paved the way for the deployment of United Nations military observers in accordance with the peace accords and a 1999 UN resolution. By September, 500 military observers and 2,000 UN support troops had deployed throughout Congo to monitor the ceasefire, which has been almost universally respected since January.

Yet one refrain remains the same between father and son. This is not a civil war, as it is so often referred to in the media. Joseph Kabila is battling on the international stage to have the war recognized as an invasion.

"This was a true war of aggression and we have had an occupation of our country since that time," he says.

Until the invaders leave Congo's national boundaries, the work of rebuilding will not be able to take place in earnest.

Timeline of the War

April, 1994:
1.3 million ethnic Hutus flee the genocide of Rwanda's civil war and settle in camps in eastern Zaire (now DRC), a major catalyst for instability in the region.
November 30, 1996:
Laurent Kabila, rebel leader of the ADFL (the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire), backed by Uganda and Rwanda, invades Congo, defeats Mobutu's ill-organized army and pushes forward to Kinshasa where he takes power.
August 2, 1998:
Uganda, Rwanda and the rebels they back (RCD-Goma and MLC) attempt to capture Kinshasa to overthrow the Kabila government they had helped install. Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe come to Kabila's rescue and the Kinshasa civilian population rises up to successfully defend the capital. Hostile forces retreat and move to their current zones of occupation, where they have remained since.
July 10, 1999:
Lusaka Peace Accord is signed by all parties involved in the war, except the Mayi-Mayi.
Jan. 16, 2001:
Laurent Kabila is assassinated by a bodyguard.
Jan. 26, 2001:
Joseph Kabila is sworn in as the president of Congo in Kinshasa.
April 18, 2001:
UN Secretary General Report on systematic looting of Congolese resources by Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
August 20, 2001:
Pre-dialogue meeting is held in Gaborone, Botswana, where the government and rebel groups meet. The pre-talks make a major step forward including the agreement by all parties that foreign troops must leave Congo during the Inter-Congolese Dialogue commencing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
October 28, 2001:
Inter-Congolese Dialogue talks in Addis Ababa suspended becuase of lack of funding and non-attendence. Further talks are scheduled to resume in South Africa in late November.