Laurent Nkunda, Congo's Genocidal War Criminal

Once again thousands of Congolese civilians are subjected to horrifying tyranny and displacement by armed terrorists under the command of Laurent Nkunda, a Rwanda-backed mass killer. Nkunda is being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague on alleged war crimes, the Black Star News has learned.

Nkunda wants to create mass chaos in order to raise the value of the cards that he now holds and negotiate a settlement, rather than eventually being delivered to the ICC. The Hague court has not indicted Nkunda purely for political reasons, just as it's also not yet indicted another mass killer, Uganda's Lt. Gen Yoweri Museveni.

On the other hand, the Sudan's President al Bashir, a sitting president has been indicted because he was not favored by Washington, since his crimes pale in comparison to Nkunda's and Museveni's.

The equation may change dramatically next week, should Senator Barack Obama win the US Presidential election. The Republican Administration has tuned Congo into a killing field so that Western corporations can rape the country of its immense wealth; Obama has already indicated that such corruption would end immediately. That's one of the reasons why Nkunda wants to dramatically change the landscape in Congo; rather than being the obstacle to peace that he now poses, Nkunda wants to become indispensable for any agreement to take place. What's more, Nkunda also wants to prevent the United Nations from creating a patrolled buffer zone between Congo and Rwanda, which would cut off his pipeline from the Kigali regime and other outside players.

There are discussions in the United States to designate Nkunda's group as a terrorist organization when Bush is out of office. The sooner Nkunda is indicted by the ICC and shipped to face trial, the better for Congo and neighboring countries. Any crimes his terrorists now commit will only be tacked on to the charges he will face.

Nkunda's is a well-armed and well-dressed terrorist organization. He does not produce the weapons for his army. Those supplying his forces must also bear direct responsibility for crimes against Congolese civilians.

Already 200,000 Congolese have been displaced from their homes as the Congo's rag-tag national army has failed to protect civilians and the United Nations peace keeping force has stood by as genocide begins to take shape; there are already reports of mass rapes. No wonder Congolese civilians have hurled stones as these well-armed peacekeepers.

The UN's inaction is reminiscent of the Rwanda genocide when peacekeepers stood by amidst human suffering. It also harks to the day when the UN stood by during the 1960s as Congo collapsed and Patrice Lumumba was murdered.

Nkunda claims his objective is to protect Tutsis in Congo. It's a big lie that the whole world knows. No one is killing in Tutsis in Congo; it's Nkunda's belligerence that's actually creating animosities against Tutsis in Congo.

But in reality Nkunda thrives on mayhem, chaos and even genocide. He would like to spark mass killings against Tutsis in Congo to give him the excuse to launch an attack towards the capital of Kinshasa. He once had fantasies of creating a Pan-Tutsi empire in Congo; now he just wants to be spared from the ICC.

Nkunda is a danger to the peace in Central Africa and certainly to all Congolese. Nkunda is directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Congolese and belongs in the Hague.