Congolese Rebel Leader Captured in Rwanda

Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was arrested in neighboring Rwanda on Friday after a joint military exercise between the two countries to capture the Tutsi fugitive, military officials said.

Rwandan and Congolese soldiers converged Thursday on Nkunda's stronghold in the Congolese town of Bunagana, said Capt. Olivier Hamuli, a spokesman for the joint force. But Nkunda, who has led a rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since 2004, fled south, crossing into Rwanda, where he was taken into custody, he said. The Rwandan military confirmed the account.

The militaries said Nkunda was detained after three battalions of his fighters failed to resist the joint operation. In it, 3,500 Rwandan troops crossed the border into Congo, marking an unprecedented level of cooperation between the two countries after a decade of mutual suspicion.

Nkunda led an offensive last year that embarrassed the Congo government. His rebels were more disciplined and better trained than the Congolese army, and they soon controlled access to the regional capital of Goma.

Nkunda said he was defending Congo's Tutsi minority from Hutus who had taken part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Initially, he appeared to have the backing of Rwanda's Tutsi-led government.

But a United Nations report last month linked Rwanda to the rebel group. International donors to Rwanda pressured that country to put an end to the Nkunda rebellion, which has displaced more than 250,000 people.

Since his capture, Congo's government said it would seek Nkunda's extradition for war crimes.

Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende called Nkunda's arrest "a positive development for pacifying and securing the region," and offered hope Rwanda would extradite him to face trial. Congo issued an international warrant against Nkunda in 2005 for alleged war crimes and human rights abuses.

Conflict in eastern Congo had been simmering for decades and exploded when Hutu perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide escaped across the border into Congo.

Rwanda first invaded Congo in 1996, attacking refugee camps that served as havens for ethnic Hutu officials and militias who orchestrated the genocide. Congo's government ordered Rwandan troops to leave in 1998, but Rwanda invaded again days later, propping up a new Congolese rebel group at the start of Congo's 1998-2002 war, a conflict that drew in a half-dozen African nations.

Nkunda's detention could spell the end of one of the region's most powerful rebel factions, which was recently split by a leadership dispute. His leadership of his Tutsi National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) rebel group has been challenged by dissident rebel commanders, who last week ended hostilities with the Congolese government.

Wars, rebellions and ethnic violence since 1998 have killed more than 5 million Congolese, holding back development of the huge former Belgian colony in central Africa. It's rich in minerals such as copper, cobalt, gold and uranium.

From staff and wire reports