Congolese militia leader Laurent Nkunda may face a crisis in the ranks of his rebel force, following an announcement last week from the International Criminal Court (ICC) that it has issued an arrest warrant for his second-in-command.
Human rights groups are calling on Nkunda to immediately hand over Bosco Ntaganda — chief of staff of his militia, the Congrès National Pour la Défence du Peuple (CNDP), which operates in Eastern Congo’s North Kivu province.
But a diplomat who helped broker the recent Goma peace deal and is in regular contact with Nkunda says the general is in a difficult position.
Roeland van de Geer, European Union Special Representative for the Great Lakes region, says although Nkunda may want to hand over Ntaganda, there will be resistance within the CNDP as some members remain loyal to him.
”Nkunda will realise that if he hands over his number two it will set a powerful example. He would win the moral high ground, but the question is, does he have the support?” said Van de Geer who, along with envoys from the African Union, the United States and the United Nations, played a vital role in reaching the Goma accord in January.
Van de Geer said both Nkunda and Ntaganda were aware of the arrest warrant months ago and said Nkunda had discussed it with the rebel general.
The Hague-based court unsealed the indictment for the 35-year-old, known as the Terminator, on April 29. It was issued in August 2006 but kept secret until now.
The ICC accuses Ntaganda of crimes in the Ituri district of Eastern Congo. Prosecutors say he enlisted and conscripted children under the age of 15 into the Forces Patriotiques Pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC) in 2002 and 2003.
The FPLC, in which Ntaganda was a senior figure, is the military wing of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo’s Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC). Lubanga is in ICC custody and due to go on trial in June. He was joined recently in The Hague detention unit by two other Ituri militia leaders — Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui.
Ntaganda is a Rwandan national who fought with the Rwandan Patriotic Army, which overthrew the government after the 1994 genocide.
He is also wanted by the Congolese authorities who issued an arrest warrant for him in April 2005. Prosecutors in Bunia accuse Ntaganda of crimes including arbitrary arrest, torture, assassination and illegal detention.
They say he was involved in the killing of a Kenyan peacekeeper and the kidnapping of a Moroccan peacekeeper in 2004. He is also implicated in the murder of two aid workers in 2005 and numerous attacks on villages in Ituri.
A spokesperson for Nkunda told IWPR it is up to Ntaganda — not the general — to decide what he should do. ”He is free to make his own choice,” said René Abandi. ”He may or may not respond [to the ICC].” — Additional reporting by IWPR