In Congo, Cease-Fire Comes at a High Price

"We are very, very, very happy," said Yves Jean Bosco Batechi, a resident of North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, upon hearing that rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda, who has been waging a bloody civil war in the region, had reached a peace agreement with the government.

Less enthusiastic were prosecutors with the International Criminal Court in The Hague. It now appears unlikely that Ntaganda, who was indicted in 2006 on numerous war-crimes charges, will ever appear in court.

"At the moment there are no indications the Congolese government are prepared at all to arrest Ntaganda," said Anneke van Woudenberg from Human Rights Watch.

Prosecutors accuse Ntaganda, whose nickname is "The Terminator," of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 to fight in the conflict in northeastern Congo. He is alleged to have worked closely with another rebel leader, Thomas Lubanga, who is currently on trial in The Hague on the same charges.

Until recently, Ntaganda was chief of staff under Gen. Laurent Nkunda, leader of the National Congress for the Defense. Ntaganda apparently ousted his former boss in a coup and Nkunda was subsequently arrested in Rwanda. The Congo is demanding his extradition.

"Ntaganda has emerged as winner of the dispute between himself and Nkunda and is now in effect in partnership with the Congolese government," said van Woudenberg.

Conflict has been raging in North Kivu for years, claiming thousands of lives and displacing hundreds of thousands. Human Rights Watch and others accuse Nkunda and his followers of committing numerous atrocities in North Kivu. As chief of staff, it was Ntaganda who allegedly planned the rebel group's military campaign.

Van Woudenberg blames the Congolese government for putting its desire for peace ahead of its duty to the ICC. As a signatory of the Rome Statute, Congo is obliged to hand over those wanted by the court.

"They are abdicating their legal responsibility to arrest Bosco Ntaganda," she said. "He is not a viable partner for peace. He is not a viable partner for any military operation. He has committed serious human-rights abuses and needs to be arrested and handed over to the ICC." That's a view shared by the court.

"Bosco Ntaganda should be arrested at the earliest possible occasion and transferred to The Hague," said Beatrice Le Fraper, a spokeswoman for the court. "The (office of the prosecutor) will continue efforts to galvanize his arrest and is in contact with all the actors in the region." Without its own police force, the court has long struggled to execute many of its warrants not only in the Congo, but in Uganda and Sudan as well.

So far, the Congolese government has also been silent on the issue of Ntaganda's arrest. Interior minister Celestin Mbuyu declined to comment at his recent news conference with Ntaganda. Instead, he praised the rebel leader.

"I have to thank you and your colonels for having taken a courageous decision as Congolese," he said. "You are conscious that your brothers and sisters are suffering in the bush and forest that you decided to alleviate their suffering." For his part, Ntaganda promised to integrate his soldiers into the Congolese army.

For residents of North Kivu residents, all that matters is that the fighting has finally stopped.

"War is not a good thing," said villager Batechi. "Three of my relatives were killed in these conflicts and houses were destroyed. Most of our relatives are starving in refugee camps. I am very happy because my parents and my relatives will come back home and start living with us and our children, as was the case in the past." But he's also realistic about the prospects for a long-lasting peace.

"In this country people sign agreements in the morning and at noon, the signature is forgotten," he said. "Let's wait two or three weeks and see what happens."

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ABOUT THE WRITERS

Jacques Kahorha is a reporter in Goma, the Congo, and Lisa Clifford is the international justice project manager in The Hague for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Readers may write to the authors at the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, 48 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, U.K.; Web site: www.iwpr.net. For information about IWPR's funding, please go to http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?top_supporters.html.

This essay is available to McClatchy-Tribune News Service subscribers. McClatchy-Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of McClatchy-Tribune or its editors.

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(c) 2009, The Institute for War & Peace Reporting

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