Congo rebel leader issues peace message

Surrounded by insurgent fighters, the leader of Congo’s rebels held his first public rally today in newly conquered territory, telling the few thousand people who showed up “not to be afraid”.

But commentators claim winning over the terrified population of a half-empty town that accuses rebels of looting, rape and forced recruitment will not be easy.

“Nobody wants them here,” said a 29-year-old human rights worker, after he was finally out of earshot of plain-clothed rebel intelligence agents who followed him and every other civilian an Associated Press reporter tried to talk to. He declined to be identified because he feared for his security.

Clashes between government forces and Laurent Nkunda’s men surged in August, sparking a humanitarian crisis that has uprooted more than 250,000 people from their homes and prompted the UN to approve 3,100 more peacekeepers for the troubled Central African nation.

Mr Nkunda says he is fighting to protect Congo’s minorities, especially ethnic Tutsis he says are threatened by Hutu militias from Rwanda who fled there after participating in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Critics say Mr Nkunda is more interested in raw power, though, and that his war has only increased resentment against Tutsis.

Mr Nkunda was heavily guarded by scores of rebel fighters, who criss-crossed Rutshuru’s main road in jeeps they had captured from the army. Rebels spread out along the edges of the crumbling stadium, patting down the roughly 3,000 who entered.

After arriving in a white SUV, Mr Nkunda, carrying his trademark cane topped with an eagle’s head, raised his thin arms and danced with a group of girls to a traditional, heavily distorted, Rwandan tune that boomed from a broken loudspeaker.

He began his speech with the words: “I know there are people who like us and there are some who don’t. But I want to talk.”

Sporting a military uniform, the wiry rebel leader called for unity among the vast Central African nation’s myriad ethnic groups, saying conflict among them was destroying efforts to rebuild the country.

He compared his movement to the country’s Belgian colonisers, saying God sent them both “and nobody can fight the will of God”.

But he also said “the will of God is peace and I want peace”.

Mr Nkunda’s fighters captured Rutshuru in late October, taking over the main road running north from Goma. The move enabled Mr Nkunda to link the territory straddling a volcanic mountain chain on Congo’s eastern border with a formerly isolated rebel stronghold of Kitchanga to the west.

Most of the area is rural pastureland, and its greatest value may lay in giving rebels a stronger hand to force the government to negotiate. Today, rebels are collecting road taxes and replacing town officials and police with their own.

Many Congolese believe the rebels are heavily comprised of Rwandan soldiers, and see the rebellion partly as a Rwandan invasion. Rwanda denies its troops are involved.

“People say we are Rwandans, but it’s not true,” Mr Nkunda told today’s lukewarm crowd. “We are all Congolese.”

Mr Nkunda criticised the 17,000 UN peacekeeping force, questioning why it had never gone after Rwandan Hutu militias he said were at the heart of the conflict. The militias still live openly in remote forests with computers, radios, mortars and new uniforms, and control entire villages.

“It’s not foreigners who will bring peace,” he said. “It is us, the Congolese. Rise up and fight the enemies who do not want peace,” he said. “If you do not want to fight, then clear the way. I’m not afraid.”