“An arrest warrant was issued against Nkunda for war crimes,
crimes against humanity and insurrection months ago but the police and army
have done nothing about arresting him,” said Alison Des Forges, senior
advisor to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. “So long as Nkunda is
at large, the civilian population remains at grave risk.”
On January 18, rebel forces attacked and occupied several towns in Rutshuru
territory, North Kivu province, after routing Congolese government soldiers
stationed in the area. After a brief period of calm, combat resumed during
the past weekend. The rebels were said to be under the orders of Nkunda, an
allegation confirmed by the provincial governor in a communiqué issued
January 26. Local sources report that both rebel forces and Congolese army
troops have raped and otherwise attacked civilians and looted their
property. Tens of thousands of Congolese have fled to neighboring areas or
across the border to Uganda.
In September 2005 the government issued an international arrest warrant for
Nkunda, who had been implicated in numerous war crimes and other serious
human rights abuses during the past three years. In past investigations,
Human Rights Watch has documented summary executions, torture, and rape
committed by soldiers under Nkunda’s command, in Bukavu in 2004 and in
Kisangani in 2002.
Nkunda was a senior officer in the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese
Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma), one of the main rebel groups fighting in DRC from
1998 to 2003. In 2004 he was named general in a new national Congolese army
created from troops of the dissident forces at the end of the war. He
refused the post and withdrew with hundreds of his troops to the forests of
Masisi in North Kivu. In August 2005 he announced a new rebellion but
launched no military operations at that time.
Nkunda has remained at large even though provincial government authorities,
the Congolese army and U.N. peacekeeping forces knew of his whereabouts.
Local journalists and civil society sources reported his frequent visits to
Goma, seat of the North Kivu provincial government, and a major operations
center for Congolese soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers.
In October General Gabriel Amisi, a former colleague of Nkunda from the
RCD-Goma and commander of the 8th military region of North Kivu, told Human
Rights Watch researchers that he knew where Nkunda was but gave no
explanation why he did not arrest him.
On October 21, 2004 the Security Council in resolution 1565 directed the
U.N. troops to cooperate with Congolese authorities “to ensure that those
responsible for serious violations of human rights and international
humanitarian law are brought to justice,” a directive it repeated with added
emphasis on December 21, 2005 (resolution 1649). Asked by Human Rights Watch
researchers why U.N. peacekeepers had not assisted in arresting Nkunda, one
senior U.N. official mentioned possible repercussions from Rwanda as one
reason.
“The U.N. and the Congolese government need to muster the political will to
take action. Every civilian who was the victim of war crimes during the
recent fighting paid the price of continuing impunity in the DRC,” said Des
Forges. “It’s long past time to arrest Nkunda.”
Background on Laurent Nkunda
Laurent Nkunda (known also as Nkundabatware), born in North Kivu, joined the
RCD-Goma rebel forces in 1998. He received military training in Rwanda,
including at Gabiro military camp, and became the commander of the Seventh
Brigade of RCD-Goma forces.
Laurent Nkunda: wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity
by the Congolese government. © 2004 Reuters
In May 2002 Nkunda, together with General Amisi, was among the RCD-Goma officers responsible for the brutal repression of an attempted mutiny in Kisangani where more than 160 persons were summarily executed. In one incident, forces under Nkunda’s command bound, gagged, and executed twenty-eight persons and then put their bodies in bags weighted with stones and threw them off a Kisangani bridge. After the U.N. began investigating these crimes, Nkunda and several armed guards entered the U.N. premises and abducted and beat two guards.
At a Security Council briefing on July 16, 2002, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson called on Congolese authorities to arrest those who ordered or were involved in the massacre, and warned of further bloodshed if they were not brought to justice.
Despite the supposed end to the war and the establishment of a transitional government in 2003, dissident soldiers loyal to RCD-Goma clashed with other Congolese army forces in South Kivu in May 2004. Nkunda and troops loyal to him took control of the South Kivu town of Bukavu on June 2, claiming his action was necessary to stop a genocide of Congolese Tutsi, known locally as Banyamulenge. During the fighting, Nkunda’s troops carried out war crimes, killing and raping civilians and looting their property. In one case on June 3, 2004 Nkunda’s soldiers gang-raped a mother in front of her husband and children while another soldier raped her three-year-old daughter.
After U.N. peacekeepers negotiated Nkunda’s withdrawal from Bukavu, he and some of his forces headed into the forests of North Kivu while others, commanded by Col. Jules Mutebusi, found safety in Rwanda. The Congolese government has issued an international warrant for the arrest of Mutebutsi, charged like Nkunda with insurrection, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Congolese Foreign Minister also wrote to Rwanda, requesting Mutebusi’s return to Congo, but Rwandan authorities have not handed him over.
In August 2005 Nkunda declared the current government corrupt and incompetent and said it must be overthrown. In September 2005 a large number of Rwandaphone soldiers belonging to the former RCD-Goma deserted the national army in North Kivu and some of them went to join Nkunda in the forests of Masisi.
On January 18, forces loyal to Nkunda took several North Kivu towns, including Tongo, Bunagana and Rutshuru. After a lull following a show of force by the U.N and national troops combat resumed on January 28 in Rutshuru town, causing the remaining residents to flee.
Related Material
War
Crimes in Bukavu
Background Briefing, June 11, 2004
War Crimes in Kisangani:
The Response of Rwandan-backed Rebels to the May 2002 Mutiny
Report, August 20, 2006
More on the DRC
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