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| |  | | Laurent Nkunda | | | context : | DRC  | | judgement place : | Democratic Republic of the Congo | | status : | Sought - Arrest warrant | | particulars : | Indicted by the Congolese government in September 2005 | | position : | Commander of a Congolese militia |
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| | | | Laurent Nkunda (alias Laurent Nkunda Bwatare, Laurent Nkundabatware, Laurent Nkunda Mahoro Batware, General Nkunda) was born on 2 February 1967 in Rutshuru, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He is married and has four children.
The former psychology student has been a soldier since 1993. He first fought with the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the rebel movement formed by Rwandan Tutsi exiles, which took control of Rwanda in 1994, ending the genocide.
Afterwards Laurent Nkunda returned to the DRC and, in 1998, became senior officer in the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma), one of the main rebel groups fighting in DRC.
In May 2002 Nkunda, together with General Amisi, is alleged to have been among the RCD-Goma officers responsible for the brutal repression of an attempted mutiny in Kisangani, where more than 160 persons were summarily executed. In one incident, forces under Nkunda's command are alleged to have bound, gagged, and executed twenty-eight persons and then put their bodies in bags weighed with stones to throw them off a Kisangani bridge. After the U.N. began investigating these crimes, Nkunda and several armed guards are alleged to have entered the U.N. premises where they abducted and beat two guards.
In 2003, when the war was meant to be over, the RCD joined the national army of the transitional government. In 2004 Nkunda was named general. Nkunda refused, however, to report to Kinshasa under the new integrated army and withdrew with hundreds of his former troops to the forests of Masisi in North Kivu. Despite the supposed end to the war, the soldiers still loyal to RCD-Goma clashed with other Congolese army forces in South Kivu in May 2004. Nkunda and troops loyal to him took control of the South Kivu town of Bukavu on 2 June, claiming this action was necessary to stop genocide of Congolese Tutsi, known locally as Banyamulenge. Some accused Nkunda of still following orders from Kigali, he however said that, although he considered Rwandans his allies, they had not told him to capture Bukavu. During the fighting, Nkunda's troops are alleged of carrying out war crimes, killing and raping civilians and looting their property.
After U.N. peacekeepers negotiated Nkunda's withdrawal from Bukavu, he and some of his forces headed into the forests of North Kivu while others, commanded by Col. Jules Mutebusi, found safety in Rwanda.
In August 2005, Nkunda declared the current Congolese government corrupt and incompetent and called for its overthrow. In September 2005, another large number of Rwandaphone soldiers belonging to the former RCD-Goma deserted the national army in North Kivu and some of them went to join Nkunda in the forests of Masisi.
On 18 January 2006, rebel forces attacked and occupied several towns in Rutshuru territory, North Kivu province, after routing Congolese government soldiers stationed in the area. The rebels were said to be under the orders of Nkunda, an allegation confirmed by the provincial governor in a communiqué issued on 26 January. Local sources report that both rebel forces and Congolese army troops have raped and otherwise attacked civilians and looted their property. Tens of thousands of Congolese have fled to neighbouring areas or across the border to Uganda.
At a Security Council briefing on 16 July 2002, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson called on Congolese authorities to arrest those who had ordered or been involved in the massacre, and warned of further bloodshed if they were not brought to justice. | |     click for more... | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Congo | | | date of birth : | | | 02.02.1967 | | | also known as : | | | Laurent Nkunda Bwatare, Laurent Nkundabatware, Laurent Nkunda Mahoro Batware, General Nkunda | | | last time seen : | | | Allegedly seen in Goma, DRC | | | period of charges : | | | 05.2002 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 03.06.2007 |
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