Hope Glimmering as War Retreats From Congo

Rebels who had been trying to overthrow Congolese President Joseph Kabila's government have traded their military uniforms for designer suits and their jungle barracks for corner offices with prime river views. The Congolese flag is now flying nationwide, and tentative steps have begun to merge rival armies into one.

Beyond the capital, however, many Congolese are still running for their lives. Despite the supposed cessation of hostilities, massacres continue in the remote reaches of eastern Congo, where the United Nations peacekeepers deployed there, now numbering more than 10,000, always appear one step behind the latest killings.

"The dying gasps of a spent war," is what the head of the United Nations mission, William Lacy Swing, calls the latest outbreaks.