Congolese renegade General Laurent Nkunda was arrested last Friday in the neighboring Rwanda after trying to resist arrest. Captain Olivier Hamuli said the arrest took place while General Nkunda was on the run in the Rwandan territory after having resisted soldiers in Bunagana. Nkunda who had in recent days threatened to seize Goma was ousted as leader of the CNDP earlier this month by one of his Generals.
Laurent Nkunda has justified the basis of his notorious rebellion on the premise that he was fighting to protect the region’s ethnic Tutsi minority from Hutu militias who took refuge in eastern Congo after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It is alleged that these Hutu militias are the same people who participated in the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, and that they pause a serious threat to the government of Paul Kageme. Nkunda’s CNDP launched a major offensive in August 2008 which sent out hundreds of thousands of people to refugee camps. His arrest has been welcomed as a first step towards a global peace process in the Great Lakes Region.
One Comment
Your must be logged in to comment.
1:34 pm on February 18th, 2009
While I do not support the actions of Hutu militias namely FDLR, the allegation that these Hutu militias are the same people who participated in the 2004 genocide is disputable. We have to learn the background history of the conflict between Hutu and Tutsi. There are people who did not participate in the 1994 genocide who are members of the Hutu militias just because of the hatred between these two tribes. Assuming that all of them participated in genocide establish the predicament that would allow Ruanda President (a Tutsi ) to arrest all of them and punish even innocents.
Thanks