A GROUP of young men is waiting in the front office of the old Zaire Express building in central Goma. They are not queuing for airline tickets but for applications for a seminar in public administration.
This is the headquarters of the rebel regime's Information Ministry and the young men have come to show their support for the recently declared Democratic Republic of Congo.
We know there are no jobs yet," says one. "But we hope there soon will be and we want to be prepared."
It is now four months since rebels began an insurgency in Zaire's remote eastern region. In that time the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo Zaire (ADFL) has occupied a huge swathe of territory bordering Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Led by the former Marxist, Mr Laurent Kabila, the rebels have driven the demoralised Zairean army (FAZ) before them, taking town after town with apparent ease. Their rapid progress is causing growing alarm in the tar off capital, Kinshasa.
It was a measure of its desperation that the Zairean government bowed to international pressure and this week met representatives of Mr Kabila for talks in South Africa. The hope is that the two sides will declare a truce and start peace talks. What room there is for compromise remains to be seen to date the rebels have said they will settle for nothing short of the resignation of the ailing Zairean President, Mr Sese Seko Mobutu.
"We're serious about talks," says the ADFL Information Minister, Mr Raphael Ghenda, seated at his desk in the old Zaire Express office in Goma. "But if our conditions are not met, we'll continue fighting, all the way to Kinshasa if necessary. We're nearly there already."
Mr Ghenda's claim is an unashamed exaggeration but there are many who believe the rebels could reach the capital if they continue to advance at their current rate. Already, they are close to Kisangani, Zaire's third largest city and a strategic location for control of the country's interior.
"At the moment we have 10 million people under our control," says Mr Ghenda who has come back from exile in Belgium to serve the new regime. "The current government is corrupt. We want to change that. I believe most of the population is with us.
Although it is impossible to assess their popularity nationwide, the rebels seem to have been welcomed in most areas they hold. This is not surprising Zaire's politicians, and in particular its president, have for decades been synonymous with corruption and greed. Unpaid, the army has devoted itself to wholesale pillage and extortion.
The rebels, by contrast, appear disciplined and committed to reform. "People are happy here at the moment," says one foreign aide worker in Goma. "We deal with a rebel committee which protects us from the lower ranks of the civil service who still try to get money out of us. So far, we've had little reason to complain."
What started out last October as a self defence campaign among eastern Zaire's Tutsi community is now a liberation movement with nationalist aspirations. As they push into the interior the rebels gain new recruits, some of them defectors from the FAZ. Nevertheless, the core of the rebel force continues to be seen as largely Tutsi.
The crucial test for the ADFL will be its ability to garner support from across the country's ethnic spectrum.
Eastern Zaire is a region rich in tea, coffee and minerals but production takes second place to the military struggle.
"So far the new regime hasn't got properly organised," says one long term expatriate resident of Goma. "The economy hasn't yet got going and taxes aren't being, collected. None of the civil servants is being paid. But, after years of nothing working properly, people realise it will take some time for things to get started. The most important factor is the sense of optimism."
Government threats to continue and intensify air bombardments which began earlier this week are unlikely to have little effect on the rebel advance. The inhabitants of Bukavu and the other affected towns have not responded to government exhortations to leave rebel territory. By targeting civilian areas, Kinshasa is certain to further alienate the populace and increase sympathy for the insurgents' cause.
. A Swiss journalist, Jean Philippe Ceppi of the French daily Libkmtiori, was expelled from Zaire yesterday by the authorities after writing articles speaking of the demoralised state of the Zairean army. Ten days ago two French journalists were asked to leave Kisangani.