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A senior US official has urged the Democratic Republic of Congo to arrest a notorious commander accused of war crimes in the east of the country.
“We just feel that anybody who has committed war crimes should not participate in military operations of this sort at the moment and he needs to be held accountable,” the Reuters news agency quoted Howard Wolpe, Washington's envoy to the Great Lakes region, as saying.
Former rebel general Jean Bosco Ntaganda, also known as the Terminator, is deputy commander of an anti-rebel offensive that is being supported by the UN mission in Congo (MONUC).
Ntaganda is wanted by the International Criminal Court but joined the DRC army in January.
The UN says the Congolese government has assured it that he is not playing a significant role in the offensives in the region.
MONUC has been called into question because of atrocities against civilians blamed on regular troops.
In the eastern Congo, the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and Hutu extremists of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have caused untold suffering for thousands of civilians.
Congo launched an operation in January against the militias, which have been destabilizing the Great Lakes region for years.
The eastern Congo has experienced interminable cycles of violence since the war began in 1998. The conflict has dragged on for over a decade and left over 5.4 million people dead.
JR/HGL
“We just feel that anybody who has committed war crimes should not participate in military operations of this sort at the moment and he needs to be held accountable,” the Reuters news agency quoted Howard Wolpe, Washington's envoy to the Great Lakes region, as saying.
Former rebel general Jean Bosco Ntaganda, also known as the Terminator, is deputy commander of an anti-rebel offensive that is being supported by the UN mission in Congo (MONUC).
Ntaganda is wanted by the International Criminal Court but joined the DRC army in January.
The UN says the Congolese government has assured it that he is not playing a significant role in the offensives in the region.
MONUC has been called into question because of atrocities against civilians blamed on regular troops.
In the eastern Congo, the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and Hutu extremists of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have caused untold suffering for thousands of civilians.
Congo launched an operation in January against the militias, which have been destabilizing the Great Lakes region for years.
The eastern Congo has experienced interminable cycles of violence since the war began in 1998. The conflict has dragged on for over a decade and left over 5.4 million people dead.
JR/HGL
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