Matthew Green, Reporter, writer and video journalist

Congo's rebel leader has political goal in his sights

By Matthew Green
Published: November 15 2008
Copyright The Financial Times

Striding on to a hilltop flanked by bodyguards, Laurent Nkunda, the Congolese rebel leader, extends the quick hand-shake of a man in a hurry. The setting for the encounter could hardly be more tranquil: a village nestling amid the majestic volcanic peaks that dominate his home province of North Kivu.

But the former general, clad in smart fatigues and beret, loses no time in unleashing a torrent of words aimed at transforming his image from that of a dangerous warlord to a champion of the Democratic Republic of Congo's future prosperity.

"I want Europe to know Congo is at the birth of a revolution, it must not muzzle it, it must help it to grow," he says, leaning forward in an armchair that jars with the backdrop of smoky hills and lowing cattle. "There is a cry for peace and freedom." For all his rhetoric, 41-year-old Mr Nkunda has a problem. Having encircled the city of Goma by routing government troops and defying the world's largest UN force - causing an estimated 250,000 people to flee - he has gained the upper hand on the battlefield.

But the practising Seventh-day Adventist pastor now has to figure out how to turn his military success into a political outcome that will satisfy both his personal ambitions and backers drawn mainly from the Tutsi minority that straddles eastern Congo and neighbouring Rwanda. Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president appointed as a UN special envoy for the crisis, is due to meet Mr Nkunda this weekend to discuss a way to steer eastern Congo away from mayhem.

After an hour of his rapid, sometimes hectoring, commentary, it seems clear that Mr Nkunda is gunning for a deal with Joseph Kabila, the president, and perhaps a role rebuilding the country's shambolic army.

"I have national ambitions," he said, peering through gold-rimmed glasses. "My ambition is to make the Congolese army one that respects itself." There is a well-worn path in Congo of former rebel leaders winning positions in the government in Kinshasa, the capital, where the atrocities committed by their forces are often swept under the carpet for the sake of political expediency. So far though, Mr Kabila has refused direct talks. Various past agreements have unravelled.

At a meeting with a small group of journalists on Thursday, Mr Nkunda nevertheless laid out an agenda to devolve power via a new federal structure and root out corruption plaguing Mr Kabila's government. He also wants the government to disarm ethnic Hutu militia whose origins lie in the forces responsible for the 1994 genocide of minority Tutsis in Rwanda.

"For this government to be saved, they must accept these negotiations," he said. "If the government closes its ears, they will have to go."

Mr Nkunda - who has been accused by the UN of involvement in the massacre of 160 civilians in Kisangani in May 2002 - seeks to project the image of an officer and a gentleman, complete with a staff topped with a silver eagle's head.

He has assiduously courted the international media, dismissing accusations by Human Rights Watch that his men have been involved in abuses, including murder. Apart from the complications of crossing the narrow stretch of no-man's land outside Goma, he is among the most camera-friendly of the motley cast of insurgents to carve their names into central African history. But convincing the majority of Congolese that he represents more than the interests of his Tutsi community, and the government of Rwanda, may require more than impromptu press conferences in the bush.

A former psychology student, Mr Nkunda joined the Tutsi-dominated guerrilla army led by Paul Kagame, now Rwanda's president, that toppled Rwanda's genocidal regime. He went on to fight on the side of rebels backed by Mr Kagame during years of civil war in Congo. But while many of Mr Nkunda's comrades joined a transitional government with Mr Kabila in 2003, he stayed out.

Mr Nkunda's uprising gained momentum when Mr Kabila won elections in 2006. Many Tutsi community leaders and businessmen felt marginalised, fearing more of the persecution that has driven out waves of refugees over the years, including Mr Nkunda's relatives. Mr Nkunda, a controversial figure even in his own community, emerged as champion for some.

Now seeking to portray himself as a national figure, Mr Nkunda said many other minorities had also suffered in Congo and called for a South Africa-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past abuses. "The hatred was created by the government," he said. "We need national reconciliation. People were killing each other, we cannot sit together in this blood."

Mr Nkunda cited Charles de Gaulle, the French leader, as a role model. But with the military situation still tense, it is far from clear that the one-time teacher will be able to make the leap from provincial renegade to a player in the distant capital.

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