Congo's "The Terminator": at large but out of sight
By Pascal Fletcher and Richard Valdmanis
Wed Nov 21, 2012 1:50pm EST
(Reuters) - He is one of the most wanted war crimes fugitives in the world
and the International Criminal Court lists him as "at large".
Bosco "The Terminator" Ntaganda, the Rwandan-born Tutsi warlord U.N. experts
say controls the M23 rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of
<
http://www.reuters.com/places/congo> Congo, has stayed largely invisible as
M23 fighters notch up military success after success.
Ntaganda, wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity -
including recruiting child soldiers, murder, rape and sexual slavery - was
not sighted among the M23 commanders who paraded victoriously through the
eastern Congolese city of Goma on Tuesday after it fell to the rebels.
M23, which started in April as a mutiny of Congolese army troops complaining
about the government failing to fulfil the terms of a peace deal from an
earlier conflict, now says it plans to "liberate" all of Congo.
Regional and international leaders are scrambling to halt a fresh
conflagration in a Great Lakes borderlands region that has long been a
tinderbox of ethnic and political conflict fuelled by mineral riches.
Several million people have died from war, hunger and disease in the Congo
in the last two decades.
The career of Ntaganda, who has fought for rebels, militias and armies in
both Rwanda and Congo in the last 20 years, reflects the tangled and
shifting allegiances of a territory that has been repeatedly traumatized by
genocide and violence.
He was a member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebel group of now
Rwandan President Paul Kagame, fought in east Congo's previous Tutsi-led
CNDP rebellion headed by Laurent Nkunda and then became an officer in the
integrated Congolese army of President Joseph Kabila, whom he now seeks to
topple.
A report by a U.N. panel of experts in October names Ntaganda as the leader
who controls the M23 rebellion on the ground and adds that he and other
rebel commanders "receive direct military orders" from senior Rwandan
military figures acting under instructions from Defence Minister James
Kabarebe.
Rwanda vehemently denies supporting the M23, accusing the world of trying to
blame it for Congo's unremitting troubles.
Ntaganda has hardly been seen since April, when he deserted the army,
triggering a wave of defections by other former Tutsi rebels from the
Congolese army. In May he dismissed reports of his role in the nascent
rebellion as "lies", telling the BBC in an interview he was still at his
farm in Masisi in east Congo's North Kivu province.
"What soldiers? I have no soldiers," he said.
More visible M23 commanders, like Colonel Sultani Makenga, have also
maintained this line, saying Ntaganda is not involved.
But groups which closely follow the Congo say his invisibility has not
diminished his influence.
"We have been getting reports, including from insiders, that even though he
is less visible, he has still been playing a leading role," Carina
Tertsakian, a researcher on the Great Lakes for Human Rights Watch, told
Reuters.
Congolese intelligence sources say Ntaganda is believed to be at the M23
stronghold of Runyoni near the Rwandan border and next to the heavily
forested Virunga national park.
PEACEMAKER TURNED WARMONGER AGAIN?
M23's name refers to the March 23 date of the 2009 accord that ended
Nkunda's revolt: the new rebels accuse Kabila's government of not complying
with the terms of that agreement to fully integrate Congolese Tutsis into
the army and government.
Relatively rare photographs of Ntaganda show a youthful, smooth-cheeked
figure, often smiling broadly, who likes wearing military berets or leather
cowboy hats with his camouflage fatigues. He is believed to be around 40.
Ntaganda replaced Nkunda as head of the Tutsi-led CNDP rebel group when
Nkunda was arrested in early 2009. As the new CNDP boss, he negotiated the
March 23, 2009 deal that saw the group incorporated into the Congolese army,
where he became a general.
Those who have spoken to him say he can project an engaging personality, but
lacks the charisma and rhetorical skills of Nkunda, the previous CNDP
leader.
"My troops love me," he told a Reuters interviewer in an October 5, 2010
interview in Goma when he was a general in the integrated Congolese army
involved in United Nations-backed operations against Rwandan-led Hutu rebels
in the Congo.
"Who gave peace to Congo? It was me, General Bosco," he said, arguing that
he played a leading role in ending the revolt and reconciling the CNDP with
Kabila's government.
His senior position in Congo's armed forces and swaggering presence in Goma
outraged rights groups like Human Rights Watch which repeatedly demanded his
arrest by the Congolese authorities and by U.N. peacekeepers.
"Ntaganda has boldly walked around the restaurants and tennis courts of Goma
flaunting his impunity like a medal of honor while engaging in ruthless
human rights abuses," Anneke Van Woudenberg, a longtime Congo watcher and
previously a senior Africa researcher with HRW, said in April.
Kabila's government says it did not arrest Ntaganda sooner because he had
contributed to forging the 2009 peace.
"I have to tell you that we had good reason not to arrest Bosco Ntaganda.
The main reason was to consolidate the peace process, to which he had
contributed," Congolese government chief spokesman Lambert Mende said in May
this year.
In a report in October, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group noted
the irony of "an ICC-indicted former warlord" being involved in U.N.-backed
military operations.
The ICG says it was precisely the "U-turn" of Kabila's government earlier
this year, under pressure from foreign backers like the United States, to
publicly seek Ntaganda's arrest that drove him to lead Tutsi fighters into
mutiny.
TRAFFICKING IN MINERALS
The main ICC charges against Ntaganda relate to his activities as chief of
operations for the Congolese militia group Union of Congolese Patriots
(UPC)/Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC) in 2002-2003 in
the northeast Ituri district. He has rejected the charges against him as
"lies".
In March, 2012, the ICC found Ntaganda's co-accused, Thomas Lubanga, guilty
of the war crime of recruiting and using child soldiers in the court's first
case. Following the verdict, the ICC prosecutor announced additional charges
of rape and murder against Ntaganda in connection with his activities in
Ituri.
"Congo is full of war criminals, but the ICC arrest warrants put Ntaganda in
a different league," HRW's Tertsakian said.
International Crisis Group says Ntaganda has also been involved in
trafficking of raw materials, such as gold. Between 2009 and 2012, he
acquired properties in Goma and Masisi, including a hotel, a mill and a gas
station, and conducted business in the supply of fuel from Kenya, ICG said.
It is not clear whether M23, despite what the U.N. experts say is its
significant backing from Rwanda, has the military clout to march on Kinshasa
and threaten Kabila's rule there.
Observers like HRW's Tertsakian said M23 is not as strong as Nkunda's CNDP
was and that Ntaganda is a less effective leader.
But, as urgent talks are held in Uganda to try to contain the rebellion, it
is hard to imagine a new deal between Kabila and the Tutsi fighters who have
repeatedly rebelled against him, like Ntaganda or the more public M23
leader, Makenga.
"I still have a hard time envisioning a compromise between the two sides.
Just try to imagine Sultani Makenga and Bosco Ntaganda integrated back into
the army as generals and you will know what I mean," said independent Congo
analyst and author Jason Stearns.
(Additional reporting by Jonny Hogg; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by
Peter Graff)
******************************************************************
Congo's rebels seek to nurture popular movement
By Jonny Hogg
GOMA | Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:09pm EST
(Reuters) - When the shooting stopped in Goma this week, stunned residents
watched with a mix of hope and despair as rebel conquerors paraded through
the eastern Congolese city's streets and asked them to join the revolution.
"The M23 rebels say they want to bring change," a teacher who gave his name
only as Peter said as fighters walked past in green fatigues, greeted by
small groups of supporters. "But we don't need to hear it, we need to see
it."
As rebels mount the most serious threat to the government of the Democratic
Republic of <
http://www.reuters.com/places/congo> Congo in years, a
parallel struggle looms over whether M23 is, as it represents itself, a
truly home-grown protest movement, or a foreign invasion by Rwanda keen to
control the remote region's minerals resources.
The answer is as important as military might in determining whether the
President Joseph Kabila's rule survives the insurgency, whose leaders
threaten to cross the 1,000 miles of hills and jungle from Rwanda's border
to his capital Kinshasa.
If defined as a popular uprising, M23 has a chance of winning over broad
local support against a government that has seen its popularity plummet
thanks to the slow pace of reform, rampant insecurity and widespread
poverty.
But defined as a proxy force for Rwanda - the small but militarily tough
neighbor that has intervened in Congo repeatedly over the past 18 years - it
will likely be halted under intense international pressure.
Prior to taking Goma on Tuesday, rebels had sought to draw Kabila into talks
along with other opposition figures and human rights organizations to
address popular complaints; Kabila refused, saying he will talk only with
Rwanda.
Since Goma's fall, and with other towns under threat, Kabila has said he
will look into M23's grievances.
"By making this demand, M23 aimed to reduce the crisis to a domestic affair,
thereby preventing Kinshasa from internationalizing it," the risk
consultancy International Crisis Group said in a research note.
Kabila's government has repeatedly referred to the rebellion as a Rwandan
creation - a point of view backed by U.N. experts, who say Rwanda hands out
orders to M23's commanders and provides soldiers and weapons to bolster its
force.
Rwanda vehemently denies the claims.
REBEL REBRAND
Efforts by M23 to win over wider Congolese support have gone much further
than calling for broad talks with Kabila.
Seeking to tap into local frustrations, M23 has set up an administration in
areas it controls that provides healthcare, police training, sanitation and
even guided tours of the region's famous mountain gorillas for a few rare
tourists.
"Before, we didn't have medical services," said Jean Sebagabo, a 37-year-old
cattle farmer in Runyoni, which has been under rebel control for months.
"Now the rebels are providing free treatment to my son."
Such activities are aimed at embarrassing Kabila, whose support in the east
of the country has slipped in recent years, largely over his failure to
defeat armed groups roaming the forests despite help for him from United
Nations peacekeepers.
"Joseph Kabila has shown he can't run the country," said Bishop Jean Marie
Runiga, civilian president of M23. "The population is living in appalling
poverty, the army doesn't work, the police doesn't work, so why go on
supporting this president?"
He added that M23 had renamed its armed wing the Congolese Revolutionary
Army - or ARC in its French acronym - as part of efforts to brush up its
image.
"We decided to give the army that name to show we're not a rebellion but a
revolution, which will bring change," he said. "M23 is ... a movement for
everyone."
In a country which has slumped to the bottom of the U.N.'s human development
index after nearly two decades of conflict that has killed millions and left
roving bands of gunmen in its wake, the approach is winning some supporters.
"Its a problem of governance, there no food there's no money," Rashidi
Benshulungu, an intelligence officer in Kabila's army who defected to the
rebels, told Reuters in Goma.
Hundreds of other Congolese troops have defected since clashes escalated
this month, helping swell M23's fighting force to as many as 4,000, from a
few hundred in April.
TOUGH SELL
But the effort to win over broad support from Congolese generally will also
present hurdles, due to simmering hatred of Rwanda, and deep-seated ethnic
tensions.
A previous Rwanda-backed rebellion in 2008 claimed hundreds of lives in
North Kivu province as insurgents killed, raped and recruited children to
their ranks. Many leaders of the former rebellion, including international
war crimes fugitive General Bosco Ntaganda, have taken up top roles in M23.
The group was formed when soldiers rose up eight months ago, contending
Kabila's government violated a 2009 peace deal that was meant to integrate
them into the army. Its name refers to the March 23, date of the 2009 deal.
M23 "say they want to change the situation, but it's lies, they're just
trying to trick us", said Justin Bayene, an apprentice in Sake, a town near
Goma which fell on Wednesday to M23 with little resistance.
M23's original decision to base its grievances on the 2009 peace agreement
may also harm its chances of winning over much of the population, according
to Jean Paul Lumbulumbu, a lawyer and rights activist in Goma. Referring to
a widespread view that that accord had been too generous to the rebels, he
said:
"The angle they started with now was a mistake."
(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Alastair Macdonald)
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Received on Wed Nov 21 2012 - 17:42:44 EST
