Thursday, December 06, 2012

All's fair in love and war!

The momentum has been set, now Rwanda & Congo must sustain it

Laurent Nkunda, who heads Congo's most powerful Tutsi rebel faction, was last week arrested in neighbouring Rwanda – which for years has supported his ruthless anti-Hutu insurgency in the region. Speculation is rife that Nkunda's arrest could be part of a Rwandan tradeoff with Congo. Some senior UN officials believe Congo might now be persuaded to go after Rwandan Hutu rebels. The arrest of Nkunda, on the other hand, means Rwanda is finally ready to abandon him and embrace the splinter faction of his movement, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).

Nkunda on his part had displaced more than 250,000 people in eastern Congo in 2004. The humanitarian crisis and global outrage this provoked had forced both the Congolese and Rwandan governments to meet across the table. After last month's UN linking of impoverished Rwanda to the rebel group, while international donors threatened to cut off aid, Rwanda saw sense in snapping ties with Nkunda.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPMMalay Chaudhuri

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