Nkunda denies war crime claims
26/03/2008 17:16  - (SA)  

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The Hague - The leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo's main rebel militia, Laurent Nkunda, is confident of being cleared if he faces war crimes charges in an international court, a Dutch newspaper reported Wednesday.

Nkunda, the Tutsi leader of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), is a former general and blamed for an insurgency against government forces in the conflict-torn eastern province of Nord-Kivu.

The unrest was supposed to have ended under a peace accord in January.

"Any serious investigation will demonstrate my innocence ... even if I have to go to The Hague (headquarters of the International Criminal Court, or ICC), you will see that they have nothing against me," he said in an interview with the Dutch daily Trouw.

Nkunda claims to be protecting the region's Tutsi minority. The authorities in Kinshasa see him as promoting the interests of neighbouring Rwanda.

Probe into DRC crimes

In February the ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, said he was probing "crimes committed in eastern DRCongo, in particular in the Kivu provinces," without naming Nkunda.

"Different options are being analysed on alleged crimes, in particular unspeakable sex crimes committed by individuals and armed groups in the Kivus, by the forces of Laurent Nkunda, by the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) forces, by local armed groups and individual members of the regular army," a spokesperson for the prosecutor, Nicola Fletcher, told AFP.

According to Trouw, "many believe (Nkunda) is one of the major causes of the ongoing conflict in the eastern Congo," where more than 800 000 people have been displaced by fighting.

Massacre

The ICC is trying to gather proof that Nkunda is guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the paper said, adding that he is accused of a massacre in January of 30 Congolese Hutus.

Nkunda set up his rebel militia in the wake of the 1994 genocide which saw more than 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus murdered.

Before that he had been a general in the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

In 2005 Nkunda created the CNDP in 2005 to defend Congolese Tutsis.

According to the newspaper, Nkunda runs a mini-state in the east of DRCongo, with its own army, taxes, and court system.

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