By Barnaby Phillips With the UN peace tour in Africa

Unless I am very careful it will all become one blur of hotel lobbies, warm Coca-Cola in VIP departure lounges, and sotto voce briefings at the back of aeroplanes.

A peace mission across Africa with the UN may sound glamorous; the fact is that we barely saw the places we were visiting, let alone heard what people were thinking.

Unhappy with my elections? I wasn't too happy with the conduct of yours

Robert Mugabe to the US ambassador

The Congolese capital, Kinshasa, for instance, is a huge and vibrant city, full of bustle and desperate humanity, struggling on the edge of survival.

I am sure its people have something to say on whether there should be war or peace; but we only ever saw them out of the back of a bus on our way to and from the airport.

Our time in Kinshasa was spent - almost entirely - within the confines of a soulless modern hotel; the kinds of places that are a little unreal at the best of times, but in war-torn Africa especially so.

Likewise for our next stop Luanda, the capital of Angola; more piped music, air-conditioning galore, $30 for a room-service snack, and again, a nagging feeling that out there, life is just a little bit different for most Angolans.

We moved across Africa in a bubble, surrounded by UN security officers - meeting suave well-dressed presidents, foreign ministers and rebel leaders.

They all professed their desire - be it in French, Portuguese or English - to end the dreadful war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Let's just say that some struck me as a little bit more sincere than others.

Reality check

Our schedule was so frenzied that all we could do was hurtle on to the next destination.

But once - in the Congolese city of Kisangani, we tried to break the mould.

Kisangani has been ravaged by war

We were driving - as usual - at speed towards the airport when our bus ground to a halt by a small market.

The ambassadors had decided to meet the people - and hear what they had to say.

All in 10 minutes, of course. Kisangani is a beautiful and tragic city - on the banks of the river Congo, in the remote east of the country, controlled by rebels.

Today its fine colonial buildings are crumbling, its factories are abandoned, and its people feel isolated as never before.

And in those few minutes in the market we heard them say it.

They did not so much tell us as shout that they wanted the rebels out, that they wanted a united Congo, and above all that they wanted peace.

In fact, they were still shouting as we got back onto our bus and sped off.

It was a sobering encounter - a reminder that away from the hotels and the presidents, lives are at stake, and civil war is causing misery for millions of people.

Anglo-French show

This was a UN Security Council mission - which means there were ambassadors from all 15 countries on that body.

But it was mainly a French and British show. Jean-David Levitte and Sir Jeremy Greenstock led the way.

Even the American ambassador, Richard Williamson, took a back seat.

In fact, he only seemed to grab the initiative once - during our briefest stop of all.

That was in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.

For me, that stop was something of an embarrassment.

BBC correspondents are still banned from entering Zimbabwe, as President Robert Mugabe says we are stooges of the hated British Government.

So whilst the other diplomats and journalists trooped off the plane, I remained on board.

In fact, I did not do too badly, curled up in business class with a bottle of wine.

Meanwhile, the ambassadors were trying to convince President Mugabe to withdraw his army from the Congo.

Frank talk

It was a rather inconclusive meeting, at the end of which Ambassador Williamson abruptly changed the subject, and told President Mugabe how unhappy the United States had been with the recent Zimbabwean elections.

At this point, diplomatic sources tell me, President Mugabe hit the proverbial roof.

"Unhappy with my elections?" he shouted at the American. "I wasn't too happy with the conduct of yours."

Those journalists who had been let off the plane said they could hear the furious voice of Zimbabwe's cantankerous leader from next door.

The shouting carried on for a full 10 minutes.

But what about the mission - bringing peace to the Congo? Well, the envoys did not quite pull it off.

The warring parties are close to a peace deal, but they are not there yet.

The trip did, as the ambassadors said, "help to build trust", "hold a series of positive meetings"; "we've even got "something to work with in the future".

But I am getting a little weary of all that diplomatic speak. We journalists prefer a little bit more blunt talking.

Come to think of it, at least President Mugabe gives us that.