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(Image Source: Al Jazeera)
BY SOLE MALDONADO AYUSO
Congolese rebel leader, Bosco Ntaganda, known as “The Terminator”, walked into the U.S.
embassy in Rwanda on Monday and surrendered — asking to be sent to the International
Criminal Court in Hague where he has been wanted for war crimes since 2006.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said:
“He specifically request to be transferred to the ICC in The Hague....I don’t think
that we have any advanced notice that he planned to walk in, it sounds like it was something
that happened this morning and we are in to his request.”
The ICC accuses “The Terminator” of crimes against humanity, including ***, ***,
*** slavery and recruiting child soldiers while he was the leader of the Union of Congolese
Patriots in 2002 and 2003. (Via VOA)
Ntaganda first joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front when he was a teenager. He fought during
the country’s racial genocide and later went on to command the Union of Congolese
Patriots military wing, where he allegedly committed the war crimes he’s accused of. (Via Channel4)
Last year the ICC was told Ntaganda had defected, but recently he had been connected to the
Congolese rebel group M23 — believed to be supported by Rwanda’s government. So
why would the warlord suddenly surrender at a U.S. embassy?
Al Jazeera reports the surrender could have been due to infighting within M23 — and
the fact that the general was on the losing side.
“M23 the one powerful and unified group
has now splitted into two. General Bosco Ntaganda lead the broken faction that is now disintegrating”
According to The New York Times, some analysts
say the fact Ntaganda seemed to travel undetected through Rwanda could mean the government arranged
his surrender.
The Times supports this theory with the fact that Rwanda’s foreign minister, Louise Mushikiwabo,
announced the so-called “Terminator’s” surrender on Twitter without official confirmation
from the U.S. embassy.
A Rwandan military official told Financial Times:
“I’m sure he was much more scared of us than the [US] embassy because he has caused
some friction...The information we had … was that he was heading deeper and deeper into
the forest but that was a deception to our intelligence.”
The U.S. Department of State is talking with different governments — included Rwanda’s
— in order to transfer Ntaganda to the ICC as soon as possible.