But what about the millions of people who, through no fault of their own, live under bad governments? This village of Walungu, about 30 miles from Bukavu near the borders of Rwanda and Burundi, is a sad case in point, one of the most wretched places in one of the world's most wretched countries. Its people suffer under not one but several warring governments and armed groups, every one of which - but especially the Rwandan Hutus who have fled their own country - preys on the local population.

Especially the women. Last September, Rwandan Hutus kidnapped a 25-year-old mother of three, dragged her out of her house as her husband stood watching, and took her into the forest, where she was raped, again and again and again. After a month, she escaped when the rebels turned their backs as she was washing their clothes in the river, but when she returned home her husband threw her out. He insisted that he was the aggrieved party, even though his wife had been so damaged by the rapes she required vaginal surgery.

There are more miserable tales here. Like the 5-year-old girl who was raped by militiamen. Or the 3-month-old baby girl, also raped. Or the 18-year-old girl who was kidnapped, raped, cast out by the Rwandan rebels after she became pregnant, rejected by her family when she returned home, and forced to give birth to her baby alone in the forest.

Then there is Balagizi Bahogwerhe, who trolls the refugee camp here in sports jacket, slacks and tie. His button-down shirt is tucked neatly into his gray wool pants, which manage to retain a slight crease despite the fact that he has not changed clothes in almost two months. That is how long it has been since the night Rwandan Hutu rebels laid waste to the life Mr. Bahogwerhe spent 41 years building, attacking his village, killing his neighbors, burning his Suzuki car, stealing all 28 of his cows and kidnapping his two 16-year-old daughters. Now he spends his days wandering around the camp with more than 3,000 other displaced people, beseeching any and all visitors to help him get his girls back.

Trying to explain why things have gone so wrong here is next to impossible. Suffice it to say that Rwandan Hutu militiamen, afraid to return home to Rwanda, where they believe they could become the targets of revenge-minded Tutsis still traumatized by the genocide there, instead hide in the forests of Congo, relying on ransoms from kidnappings and raids on villages for food and money. Meanwhile, America and its allies, after sitting out the genocide, have done precious little to pressure the governing Rwandan Tutsis to haul the Rwandan Hutu rebels home.

Of course, most of the blame for what is being done to the Congolese people right now can be placed squarely on the shoulders of the country's useless government, run by Joseph Kabila. The young Mr. Kabila has surrounded himself with armed guards in Kinshasa - the other side of the world as far as the people in Walungu are concerned. The country is huge; getting from one end to the other would be equivalent to trying to travel from London to Moscow, but without the benefit of roads. Government services for people in the eastern part of the country are practically nonexistent.

Aside from regime change in Congo, one obvious solution to the mess in the east would be for the international community to feed, arm and equip Congo's own soldiers, who have been so ignored by Mr. Kabila's government that they prey on their own people for food and clothing. These soldiers are far from perfect. But nighttime here is not the time of rest it can be elsewhere in the world, so villagers seek out the Congolese soldiers when the sun goes down, sleeping near their camps, where they feel safer than they do in their own homes.

Nobody on the world stage is talking much about helping Congo's own soldiers fight off the Rwandans; world leaders remain too squeamish. It's far easier to focus on how to help the good governments, like those in Ghana and Mozambique and Madagascar. The Bush administration, after three years of promoting a program that had not disbursed a single dime, finally announced recently that the Millennium Challenge Account would give $100 million to Madagascar.

Meanwhile, in Walungu, A. J. Berchmous Nashali, a Catholic priest, has his own proposal. Looking out toward the forests on a recent morning after Rwandans had abducted 11 of his parishioners, Father Nashali offered this: "Give me a gun," he said, "and I will go get rid of them myself."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company