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U.N. must help arrest wanted Congo general: group
Indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, October 5, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Katrina Manson
By Katrina Manson
KINSHASA | Wed Oct 13, 2010 8:12am EDT
KINSHASA (Reuters) - A human rights group urged the United Nations on Wednesday to help immediately arrest indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda, who last week told Reuters he was a senior commander in U.N.-backed military operations in Congo. Human Rights Watch (HRW) also said that unless the U.N. mission halts its support for operations in Congo's conflict-wracked east, it will be in the "untenable position" of supporting a suspected war criminal wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Ntaganda is a former rebel leader wanted by the ICC since 2006 for recruiting and using child soldiers under 15 and who now plays a leading role in Congo's army after a peace deal. "The U.N. mission should provide support to the Congolese government to arrest Ntaganda, as they have done in other cases of human rights abuses, and suspend their support of ... operations until this has been done," Anneke Van Woudenberg of HRW said in a statement.
HRW cited exclusive Reuters interviews with Ntaganda that took place in eastern Congo last week, in which he said he was the second in command of U.N.-backed military operations known as Amani Leo intended to oust a variety of rebel groups. A Reuters reporter saw Ntaganda, 37, among senior army officers in Walikale district, where more than 300 people were raped in an August attack. He got into a vehicle filled with armed soldiers, saying he was off to visit his force.
"If they (the U.N. mission) are supporting my troops, they're helping me too," Ntaganda later told Reuters. "The failure to hold Ntaganda accountable for his past crimes has left him at liberty to continue to perpetrate atrocities," said Van Woudenberg, whose group accuses the former rebel of abuses and assassinations continuing into this year.
Ntaganda last week denied he had recruited child soldiers or raped women and said that he was a disciplined soldier. The U.N. mission in Congo denied last week that it was working with Ntaganda. A spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told reporters on Tuesday that the United Nations "would not be dealing with him (Ntaganda)," without offering details.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)
