Mr` Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, leader of the rebels challenging the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), yesterday promised an "anti-dictatorial" government.
The head of the political wing of the rebel forces told 9,000 listeners here that his Congolese Rally for Democracy "opts for the necessity of national unity, territorial integrity, an opening-up towards all political forces in the country and a style of government that is collegial and therefore antidictatorial".
Mr Wamba dia Wamba, little known before the rebellion by Congolese Tutsis of Rwandan origin in the east of the Congo, was presenting himself to the public for the first time. Goma, capital of North Kivu, is a stronghold of the rebels who are trying to topple President Laurent Kabila's government in Kinshasa.
Reactions to Mr Wamba dia Wamba among the public here were mixed. "He didn't outline to us what they are going to do," a Protestant minister said.
"He's sweet-talking just like Kabila did," a 32-year-old trader said, explaining that people had been forced to close down their shops to attend the rally, "a meeting we weren't satisfied with".
Mr Kabila, who ousted the veteran dictator, Mr Mobutu Sese Seko, in May 1997 with the help of Rwanda and Uganda, has accused his former allies of fomenting the rebellion that erupted in the east of the country on August 2nd.
Forces loyal to President Kabila bombed a rebel airport and a village on Wednesday, killing two soldiers and wounding eight including two civilians, witnesses said yesterday.
The Rwandan-backed Tutsi rebels say they have taken Mbanza Ngungu, a key defence point about 120 km southwest of Kinshasa. The government has denied it.