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Captured Congo rebel leader faces uncertain legal fate after Rwanda arrest

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The legal fate of captured Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebel leader Laurent Nkunda remained unclear Saturday, days after his surprise arrest in Rwanda. Nkunda was apprehended Thursday near the border with the DRC after a joint DRC-Rwandan military operation to capture him and root out Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in the DRC. He is the leader of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a rebel group operating in the eastern DRC province of Nord-Kivu. The DRC government has called on Rwanda to extradite Nkunda to DRC, where he would face charges for atrocities committed by forces under his command. Another possibility for Nkunda is extradition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. While there is no arrest warrant or case outstanding against Nkunda, the ICC has issued an arrest warrant and prepared a case against his deputy in the CNDP, Bosco Ntaganda, for war crimes committed in the DRC, including the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Nkunda has repeatedly denied allegations of war crimes against him and the CNDP. In November, Alan Doss, the head of the UN Peacekeeping Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (MUNOC) condemned the killing of civilians in Nord-Kivu by militia groups as war crimes. Prior to Doss' statement, MUNOC announced that it had received "credible reports" that civilians had been targeted by militia groups including Nkunda's CNDP. Earlier in November, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo reasserted that the ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in Nord-Kivu, and that his office intends to punish those responsible.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 24, 2009 (boomark / email).