Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila is looking for an end to a standoff with soldiers loyal to former rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda, who's wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The president is making an attempt to influence the warriors, who defected from the military in eastern Congo last week, to rejoin.
President Kabila arrived within the eastern city of Goma Monday to lay pressure on military leaders of the previous rebel group, the CNDP (National Congress for the Defense of the folks), to go back to the army, in keeping with the 2009 peace agreement that integrated the rebels into the national militia.
Their general, former rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda, ordered soldiers under his command to defect last week, to reinforce his own personal security. Ntaganda is needed by the ICC to stand charges of war crimes committed in the course of the country's civil war, and Kabila have been under increasing pressure to arrest him.
The International Crisis Group Director for Central Africa, Thierry Vircoulon, says little is understood about what discussions Kabila is having, saying he has heard no talk of negotiations with the rebels.
"At this stage, we only hear about military operations," said Vircoulon. "It sort of feels the road is really to assert to the folk with Bosco Ntaganda to give up, after which we do not know what's going to happen to them, in the event that they would be sanctioned or not. But to this point it sounds as if the choice of force is prevailing.â€
He says Ntaganda's mutiny was fairly unsuccessful, with just one-third of the warriors under his command obeying his orders. Other former CNDP soldiers have taken part within the military operations against people that did defect, exposing a widening rift inside the group.
Ntaganda's whereabouts are unclear, and analysts are speculating on his next move: whether he'll attempt to flee around the border, perhaps into Rwanda, or entrench himself in a rural area of North Kivu province.
Vircoulon says he doesn't expect any violence, because Kinshasa has this kind of strong military advantage over the previous rebels.
"It's clear that now we do not have the sense that the mutiny has any possibilities of success, and the complete issue is the way forward for Bosco Ntaganda himself,†he said.
Ntaganda, who goes by the nickname "Terminator,†is accused of recruiting child soldiers as a deputy commander within the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an armed political group that fought in northern Congo in the course of the civil war.
Pressure to arrest him has intensified because the senior leader of the UPC, Thomas Lubanga, was convicted by the ICC for a similar crimes last month.
The DRC government had refused to apprehend Ntaganda, saying that he was critical to the peace process in volatile eastern Congo. However the recent mutiny, and subsequent military pressure from Kinshasa, indicates his time can be up.
From WhatNewsToday.net
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