For the past three days, Bosco Ntaganda, also known as "The Terminator," has been holed up at the American embassy in Rwanda. One of Africa's most wanted war criminals, Ntaganda was a leader of the M23 in eastern Congo, until he apparently lost control of the notorious rebel group, and began fearing for his own life.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has had a warrant out for Ntaganda for years on charges of recruiting child soldiers as well as for murder, rape, and sexual slavery. But despite being on this international black list since 2006, Ntaganda's fall has been relatively swift and the circumstances of his surrender remain a mystery.
But as Tony Gambino, former head of USAID in the Democratic Republic of Congo, put it: "There was never a good endgame for Bosco." Gambino, now an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, says that Ntaganda "went from being a senior commander in very good graces – at least as far as the Congolese Army was concerned – to being a hunted man with a bull's eye between his eyes. How does that happen?"
U.S. officials in Washington said that Ntaganda asked to be transferred to the ICC and that they will let him speak for himself about his motives for turning himself in.
For years, the international community tacitly accepted the formula that Congolese authorities stated publicly: that stability should be given priority over justice — which meant working with Ntaganda, an opportunistic soldier-for-hire.
Ntaganda was famous for flaunting his freedom, in spite of the arrest warrant, by frequenting bars in Goma and playing tennis at a lakeside hotel. But he rarely spoke to international media, and relatively little is known about his past other than that, at some point, he joined forces with Paul Kagame, now President of Rwanda, beginning a years-long relationship that took economic and strategic advantage of the instability on the border between eastern Congo and Rwanda.Read More
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
No comments:
Post a Comment