Mobutu troops emerge from bush

President Mobutu: Ousted in 1997

By Anna Borzello in Bunia, eastern DR Congo

About 300 soldiers loyal to former Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko have surfaced after spending nearly four years in hiding.

The soldiers handed themselves over to Ugandan-backed rebels in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Congolese Liberation Front spokesman Dominquie Kanku said that the soldiers retreated to the bush in 1997 when the then rebel, and later President, Laurent Kabila, seized the region from government troops.

Mr Kanku said the soldiers had been living like animals - surviving by banditry in and around Ituri Province.

Their presence has been causing real problems to traders in the region.

A full battalion of about 700 men originally disappeared, and many of the group who came out earlier this month were armed with AK-47s.

Retraining

They have already been taken to the FLC's training camp in Beni - where rebels say they will be retrained, politicised and then deployed in the rebel army.

There are efforts under way to persuade the remainder of the battalion to join their colleagues.

Jean-Pierre Bemba's rebels control the north of the country

The presence of the ex-Zairean government forces has been known for several years - but this is the first time anyone has been able to persuade them to come out.

Mr Kanku said the success was due to the FLC's Defence Secretary, Gideon Kibonge, who was formerly a colonel in President Mobutu's army.

During his time as a Mobutu officer - Kibonge had served in north-eastern Congo - and was known to many of the soldiers in hiding who were said to have trusted him absolutely.

The FLC, described as a front but in fact a merger of several Ugandan rebel factions with Jean Pierre Bemba at its head, has only operated in this part of Congo for the past month and the decision by the Mobutu forces is something of a feather in their cap.

Rebels control approximately half of the country in a war that has sucked in six neighbouring countries' forces.