Police in Germany have arrested two Rwandan militia leaders on suspicion of crimes committed in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, BBC has reported.

Ignace Murwanashyaka, the leader of the FDLR rebel group, and his aide Straton Musoni were held on suspicion of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

FDLR leaders fled to DR Congo after the Rwanda genocide in which some 800,000 people – mostly ethnic Tutsis – died.

The FDLR’s presence in DR Congo has been at the heart of years of unrest.

The arrests come as UN peacekeepers continue to help the Congolese army battle the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda).

The operation has been underway since January but the FDLR remains active.

UN investigator Dino Mahtani on Tuesday told the BBC that the FDLR was smuggling 40 tonnes of gold a year out of DR Congo to pay for its weapons.

The FDLR controls many mines in DR Congo, especially in the North and South Kivu provinces, just across the border from Rwanda.

Mr Murwanaskyaka, 46, was arrested in the city of Karlsruhe, while 48-year-old Mr Musoni was held in the Stuttgart area, German prosecutors said in a statement.

The statement said that the pair were the leader and deputy leader of the FDLR.

“The accused are strongly suspected, as members of the foreign terrorist organisation FDLR, of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes,” it said.

It added that “FDLR militias are believed to have killed several hundred civilians, raped numerous women, plundered and burned countless villages, forcing villagers from their homes and recruiting numerous children as soldiers”.

‘Brutal crimes’

Lobby group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has welcomed the arrests.

“Our research clearly indicates that Mr Murwanashyaka has a powerful influence over the FDLR militia who have deliberately targeted and killed hundreds of civilians in eastern Congo and that he is directly linked to the crimes,” said HRW DR Congo expert Anneke Van Woudenberg.

“Mr Murwanashyaka’s arrest on war crimes and crimes against humanity is a welcome step to bringing justice for these brutal crimes,” she added.

Mr Murwanashyaka, an ethnic Hutu, has lived in Germany since before the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

He has always denied that his men, believed to number 5-6,000, were involved in the genocide and says they are fighting to bring democracy to Rwanda.

He was among 15 people whose assets were frozen by the Security Council in 2005 on suspicion of involvement in war crimes in Rwanda or DR Congo.

The FDLR’s presence in eastern DR Congo has led to years of fighting in the region, and Rwanda’s Tutsi-dominated government has twice invaded, saying it is trying to wipe them out.

Some FDLR leaders have been accused of involvement in the Rwandan genocide.

Source: http://256news.com/page.php?aid=242&caid=1

Popularity: 1% [?]

KINSHASA (Reuters)

Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels killed 189 people during three days of raids on villages in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo last week, a U.N. agency said on Monday, citing local officials.

U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said the killings were reported to have been carried out between December 25 and December 27 in Faradje, Doruma and Gurba villages by LRA fighters fleeing a two-week-old multinational military offensive led by Uganda.

“According to local officials, on December 25, the rebels killed 40 people in Faradje. On December 26 and 27, they attacked Doruma and the neighbouring village of Gurba, killing 89 people in Doruma and 60 people in Gurba,” OCHA said in a statement.

To read the rest of this article, go to http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE4BS0B4.html

Popularity: 1% [?]

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda said on Wednesday one of its fighter aircraft had crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where regional forces are fighting a Ugandan rebel group. Ugandan, Congolese and south Sudanese troops are hunting Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in eastern Congo to try to end one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts.

“It’s true we have lost a fighter aircraft in a test flight, one-and-a-half kilometres from Isiro airport,” said Ugandan Army spokesman Paddy Ankunda.

To read the rest of this article go to http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE4BN0BU.html

Popularity: 1% [?]

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Uganda’s fugitive rebel leader Joseph Kony escaped an attack by regional armies and is hiding in the Central African Republic but still holds out the possibility of a peace deal, a rebel spokesman said on Monday.

Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan launched a joint assault on Kony’s base in Congo on December 14 after the leader of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) failed to sign an accord to end the two-decade war.

“Kony is somewhere in the Central African Republic,” LRA spokesman David Matsanga told a news conference in Nairobi, declining to be more precise.

“The entire LRA command is intact and was not destroyed by the operation,” added Matsanga, who said he spoken to Kony a few days earlier.

Matsanga said Kony had instructed him to tell the world that he was ready to resume talks but at a neutral venue such as Tanzania or South Africa and under a new mediator to replace South Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar.

To read the rest of this article go to http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE4BL099.html

Popularity: 1% [?]

Joseph Kony’s force has spread terror across the region The Ugandan government says it has destroyed more than 70% of camps run by Lord’s Resistance Army rebels in a remote region of northern DR Congo. A joint offensive was launched by Ugandan, Southern Sudanese and Congolese forces against the rebels in mid-December, after peace talks failed. Observers say the rebels, led by Josephy Kony, have managed to evade military operations in the past. The LRA are blamed for abducting children and forcing millions to flee. The BBC’s Martin Plaut says that as jets went overhead to bomb the LRA camps, local people in the Congolese town of Duru came out and cheered.

To read the rest of this article go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7794399.stm

Popularity: 1% [?]