Kindu was also the former capital of Nord-Kivu subregion of Kivu region during the Mobutu era.

If it has faded a bit already, the excitement this region felt at the end of the Mobutu era is still too recent to have disappeared altogether.

The land belongs to Mwangachuchu, whose herds were slaughtered in 1995, as the Mobutu era was sputtering to an end.

Uvira was the former capital of Sud-Kivu Subregion, which was part of the Kivu region during the Mobutu era.

However, many of the would-be extravagant compounds commissioned remain incomplete, mainly due to the drastic economic decline that characterized the latter portion of the Mobutu era.

The corruption, negligence and brutality of the Mobutu era have been an economic as well as a political disaster for Zaire.

The accusation infuriates the rebel leader here, Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former businessman who flourished during the Mobutu era.

Unflattering similarities with the Mobutu era are commonly pointed out, not only by soldiers but throughout the population.

"At the end of the Mobutu era, we had won certain privileges," Mr. Lumumba said.

As if upping the ante, Zaire's former colonial power, Belgium, declared today that the Mobutu era had already been over for some time.