SIX months ago, few people had heard of Laurent-Desire Kabila, the rebel leader whose troops are currently cutting a swath through Zaire. Since launching their insurgency, however, Kabila's rebel forces have managed to occupy nearly a quarter of the sprawling central African nation and are this weekend advancing on its second city, Lubumbashi.
The success of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire has pushed the 32-year old regime of President Mobutu Sese Seko close to collapse. It has also forced world leaders to confront a new and startling reality: Mr Kabila (58), a veteran of revolution during the 1960s and a former comrade-in-arms of Che Guevara, could be Zaire's next head of state.
In many ways, Laurent Kabila is the Rip Van Winkle of the guerrilla world. Having played a prominent part in the birth of his nation, which gained independence from Belgium in 1960, he seemed to drift away, if not into sleep, then certainly into obscurity. Now, after three decades in the wilderness decades which have coincided with the reign of Africa's most notorious surviving dictator - Kabila has re-emerged.
Keen to guard his privacy and evasive about his past, he recently noted with chagrin while reading an international news magazine, "I'm on the same page as O.J. Simpson." A stout man with a ready smile, Kabila has all but discarded his military fatigues in favour of casual attire: safari suit, baseball cap and white trainers.
Friends say he is married with six children, three of whom are in the rebel forces. He is a Christian and a non-drinker. If one factor has determined his life it has been his opposition to President Mobutu's dictatorship of corruption and repression.
Laurent Kabila was born in 1939 in northern Katanga, (then Shaba) province. He studied in Tanzania and France, returning home to support the leftist, Patrice Lumumba, who became first prime minister of the Congo (as the country was known until 1971 and will again be called if Kabila has his way).
In the years following the 1961 murder of Lumumba, the Congo became riven with left-wing insurrection. In 1,9,64, three months after an uprising started in the west, the young Kabila helped launch the "Simba" (Lion) rebellion in the east. By the time Stanleyville, now Kisangani, fell in August 1964, considerable territory was in rebel hands.
With Cold War rivalries at their height, the insurgents were supported by the Soviet Union and China, while the government forces (under one Col Joseph Mobutu) were backed by the US and its western allies.
In the era's most infamous episode, Belgian paratroopers were flown in by US aircraft to retake Stanleyville, headquarters of the "People's Republic of the Congo". The operation was successful but hundreds of Europeans and Africans died in the battle.
Though the heart of the rebellion had been plucked out, Kabila and his men kept fighting in the east. In 1965 Che Gucvara led a troop of Cubans to their aid but the fervour of global revolution soon turned to disillusionment. Che was appalled by the rebels' disorganisation and the perpetual absence of their leaders. He was also alarmed by the endemic levels of venereal disease among the guerrillas.
Shortly after Che left the continent forever, Kabila's force was routed by government troops. He headed for the mountains by Lake Tanganyika and in 1967 established a socialist enclave which survived, in one form or another, into the 1980s.
His followers briefly hit the headlines in 1974 with the kidnap of three Americans and a Dutch woman from a wild life research centre in Tanzania. More than a quarter of a million pounds in ransom is believed to have been paid.
During his time in the wilds of eastern Zaire, Kabila is rumoured to have run his own goldmine and to have been a trafficker in precious metals. Reclusive spells in the mountains of eastern Zaire alternated with visits abroad: Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and southern Sudan. There were also rumours of military training in the Soviet bloc and China.
But little was heard of Kabila until he emerged at the head of an uprising which began in eastern Zaire last September. Initially, it was suspected that Kabila and his followers were little more than agents of Rwanda. It is certainly clear that Rwanda played a pivotal role, particularly in the early stages of the Zairean insurrection.
It is now evident, however, that Uganda is the primary backer of Laurent Kabila and his bid to overthrow President Mobutu. Reliable sources confirm it was the Ugandan President, Yoweri. Museveni, a former guerrilla leader, who designated Kabila to front the rebellion in Zaire.
Using tactics favoured by the Rwandan Patriotic Army and Uganda's National Resistance Army attacking on several fronts at once and encircling their target - the rebels have advanced rapidly.
Kabila's finest hour to date has been the rebel occupation of Kisangani two weeks ago. Thirty-three years ago, the People's Republic of the Congo nominated him as political commissioner of the town. But it was an office denied to him by the Belgian offensive. Arriving in Kisangani ate the end of last week, Kabila was greeted by cheering crowds. "You are our liberator," they shouted. "Our Moses, our messiah."
"He has been thinking of the big time for 30 years," says one western diplomat in the region, and now it would seem that time has come. All his life he has been preparing for this moment. Kabila thinks of himself as a statesman. He undoubtedly considers himself a man with a mission, a man whose destiny it is to liberate the people of Zaire."
Though his language still features slogans about "the will of the people" and "emancipation of the masses" Kabila has abandoned the wider Marxist rhetoric of his youth. He says he is committed to democracy and free elections. Beyond that, it is difficult to say what sort of prescription he has for the ills of Zaire.
"He's a very effective rebel leader but his political manifesto is wonderfully vague," says a diplomat who has visited him many times at his base in the eastern Zairean city of Goma. "Can Kabila win the war? Yes, he can. "Can he take over and run Zaire? The answer is yes. But would he be a more effective ruler than Mobutu and could he prevent long-term unrest in the country? Who knows."
In a recent interview with CNN, Kabila denied that, he wanted political power for himself. I want my, people to, be free," he said, "and then I will return to my private life." It is, however, difficult to believe that a man who has devoted a lifetime to the overthrow of a regime should simply walk off the stage without a backward glance.
Laurent Kabila has emerged from the shadows to lead the greatest opposition movement Zaire has known since President Mobutu came to power. The name of Kabila is likely to figure prominently in Zaire's affairs of state for some time to come.