The recent capture of Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda by Rwandan forces is a milestone toward ending the protracted civil war in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.An obstinate and belligerent rebel, Nkunda has led one of the most brutal insurgencies in Central Africa, one that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The turn of events has created a ray of hope for the people of eastern Congo, who have not seen peace for more than a decade.
Nkunda is a self-styled Seventh-day Adventist minister and a Rwandan Tutsi. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have borne the brunt of a vicious civil war, characterized by massacres and rape. The United Nations quotes a figure of 4 million casualties in the civil unrest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
This is one of the worst humanitarian crises yet in Africa, in the league of Darfur. Tragically, it remains under-reported by the international media. Early this year, rebels fleeing a combined force of soldiers from Uganda and Congo massacred about 900 civilians in the region.
The rebel leader defected from the Congolese armed forces after the government of slain President Laurent Kabira turned against Rwandan militias who had fought alongside Kabira’s forces to topple former strongman Mobutu Sese Seko in 1998.
Nkunda claims to be fighting to protect his Tutsi tribesmen from their traditional enemies, the extremist Hutu militias.
The Rwandan government that captured Nkunda has been accused by the Congolese regime of aiding the insurgency in the eastern region.
The arrest of Nkunda brought to three the number of warlords in custody associated with some of the worst crimes against humanity in Africa.
This was also important as it came at a time one of the warlords, Thomas Lubanga, was arraigned before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He has denied war crimes and crimes-against-humanity charges.
The other warlord from the Congo who is also facing war-crimes charges is Jean Pierre Bemba. He is a former vice president of the Congo. He was arrested in Europe while on the run and handed over to the International Criminal Court last year.
The court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, was quoted by the BBC World news service as telling the trial in The Hague that Lubanga had forcefully conscripted children to kill their ethnic rivals to create a favorable ground for the exploitation of gold. He allegedly used the gold in exchange for weapons.
“Thomas Lubanga and group recruited, trained and used hundreds of young children to kill, rape and pillage,” the prosecutor said in a BBC broadcast.
African leaders have failed to negotiate a successful truce to end one of the continent’s worst civil wars, in which rape and defilement have become a common ritual.
The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo wants Nkunda handed over to face justice. But it would be fair and just to hand over the guerrilla leader to The Hague, where he would face a fair trial. The Congo, being an aggrieved party, may not have a credible forum to ensure a fair trial and ultimate justice.
The court in The Hague has faced challenges in its first hearing of the Congolese war-crime charges. The court allows the accused the privilege of looking at the witnesses, and one witness retracted his evidence after apparently receiving hostile gestures from the accused, who stared at him while he gave his evidence.
It is important for the International Criminal Court to act tough on heartless warlords and hand them deterrent sentences.
Peter Makori is a Kenyan journalist who is an alumnus of the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship program. To reach him, send e-mail to petmak2@ yahoo.com.
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