Congo's Nkunda arrested in Rwanda awaiting extradition

Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was under arrest Friday in neighbouring Rwanda awaiting extradition on war crimes charges after his erstwhile Tutsi allies turned against him.

In a startling reversal of fortune for the cashiered general, Congolese and Rwandan soldiers captured Nkunda after he scarpered across the Democratic Republic of Congo border, officials from both countries said.

The DR Congo and Rwandan armies "inform the public of the arrest of deposed general Laurent Nkunda Thursday at 10:30 pm while fleeing in Rwandan territory after putting up brief resistance," Congolese police inspector general John Numbi said.

A Rwandan army official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP Nkunda was being held at a "secret location" in Rwanda -- with a source among the remaining rebel forces saying he was under house arrest in Gisenyi, near the Congolese border.

Nkunda, who walked away from a post of general in the Congolese army to lead the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), has been the subject of a Congolese arrest warrant since 2005.

It accuses him of war crimes in the town of Bukavu, in the eastern province of Sud-Kivu, which his forces captured in June 2004.

One legal official in DR Congo said the Rwandans were only waiting for a letter from the Congolese authorities before handing Nkunda over.

Asked if Kinshasa wanted to see Nkunda extradited to DR Congo for trial on war crimes charges here, Communications Minister Lambert Mende replied: "That is up to the Rwandan authorities, but we would like it.

"Laurent Nkunda has caused a lot of bloodshed in our eastern provinces, especially in Nord- and Sud-Kivu," he added.

"He systematically undermined all efforts to bring non-violent peace and tried to ridicule the president (Joseph Kabila) and all our institutions."

A January 2008 peace accord between the Kinshasa government and Nkunda's CNDP broke down on August 28, sparking a new humanitarian crisis as more than 115,000 people were forced to flee fighting.

By late 2008, after a series of victories, Nkunda had forced Congolese President Joseph Kabila to the negotiating table and received former presidents as United Nations envoys at his base in the east of the country.

As his troops waited at the gates of the eastern city of Goma, Kinshasa was still accusing Kigali of having supported Nkunda's movement, a charge Rwanda had always denied.

While the international community made a priority of the Congolese conflict, and Nkunda appeared to revel in his totemic image, others in his organisation were less pleased.

After rumours of ill health, his position was fatally weakened when his top commanders switched allegiance.

Bosco Ntaganda, the CNDP chief of staff who first challenged Nkunda's leadership in early January, announced on January 16 that they were putting their forces at the disposal of the Congolese army.

His forces were ready to join the fight against the FDLR Hutu rebels, he said.

On Tuesday, Rwanda sent thousands of troops into Congo as part of a joint operation, officially to eradicate the Hutu rebels of Rwandan Democratic Liberation Forces (FDLR).

The joint force then advanced Thursday on Nkunda's headquarters at Bunagana in the Nord-Kivu region of the east of the country.

They clashed briefly with forces loyal to him around Chengerero, about five kilometres (three miles) west of Bunagana, a local source said.

Nkunda had already left with a handful of men, heading for the Rwandan district of Bigogwe, near Ruhengeri -- the site of a refugee camp for ethnic Tutis from the Congolese region of Masisi -- said the same source.

Both Kinshasa and Kigali want to finish off the FDLR, which took refuge in DR Congo after participating in Rwanda's 1994 genocide which saw the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Rwanda blamed Kinshasa for failing to disarm the 6,000-strong Hutu force, which has been at the root of more than a decade of distrust between the neighbours, who finally signed a pact in December.

The Rwandan army twice occupied eastern Congo in the 1990s in its battle against the FDLR rebels.

The return of Rwandan forces to Congolese territory had sparked alarm among local residents, aid agencies and the UN peacekeeping force MONUC.

Aid agencies such as UNICEF and local people have expressed concern the advancing military forces will fail to differentiate between local civilians and FDLR combatants.