BUKAVU, Congo -- The Congolese rebel rally to mark the fourth anniversary of Africa's biggest war did not go quite as planned in the scenic eastern town of Bukavu.

Students raised the gold-starred blue flag of the Kinshasa government and stoned rebel soldiers and officials when they tried to tear it down -- hitting the governor on the head.

The day ended with three people being arrested and whipped with rubber hoses, Reuters reported.

Rebels of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) never had much popular support and are seen by many in the Democratic Republic of Congo as stooges of neighboring Rwanda.

The incident on August 2, however, highlighted escalating resentment towards a rebel movement that faces the battle of its life to hold onto a third of the mineral-rich former Zaire.

Other main belligerents in a many-sided war have inched towards peace to try to end a conflict that has cost an estimated two million lives, mostly through starvation and lack of health care.

But the RCD has suffered a series of setbacks.

--- Left Out --- First, the rebels were excluded from a power-sharing deal between the government and several Ugandan-backed factions in April.

Then last month Rwanda signed an accord with Kinshasa that calls for the withdrawal of some 20,000 Rwandan troops from Congo within months -- potentially abandoning the RCD without the military backing that made it strong.

"People think that if Rwanda pulls out, the RCD will be weakened," General Jean-Pierre Ondekane, Commander of the RCD Army, told Reuters.

"That's not true. We are experienced warriors and can fight for ourselves better than the government," he said.

But when renegade RCD Commander Patrick Masunzu launched a mutiny in the mountainous south Kivu district early this year, the rebels called quickly for Rwandan help.

Even that has not been enough to crush Masunzu -- whose rebellion has embarrassed rebels and Rwandans alike because of his ethnic origins among the Banyamulenge, or Congolese Tutsis.

One of the main justifications for the involvement of Rwanda's Tutsi-led army in Congo had been to protect their Congolese kin.

--- Tough Measures ___ Measures used to try to end Masunzu's mutiny include mass arrests and the gathering of thousands of civilians in camps to cut off supplies for the revolt.

Last month, Alphonse Byamungu, a popular Banyamulenge professor opposed to the rebels and thought by many to be on a hit list, was shot and killed by soldiers at his home.

"As the RCD grows weaker, they're trying to show that everyone who resists them will be killed," said one local human rights worker who was afraid to be identified.

With the Banyamulenge mutiny placing a big question mark over one of Rwanda's reasons for being in Congo, the other main justification is supposed to be addressed by the peace deal.