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For Tutsis of Eastern Congo, Protector, Exploiter or Both?
Renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda says he is protecting eastern Congo's minority Tutsis, but U.N. officials accuse him of creating a humanitarian crisis in the war-devastated region.
(By Stephanie Mccrummen -- The Washington Post)
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Nkunda has usurped local government authority, establishing police and courts, paying some villagers' school fees and even purchasing generators for local hospitals. There is a video in circulation that shows Nkunda's men -- some of whom belong to an elite group called Che, for the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara -- goose-stepping and saluting their leader, who waves and smiles back.
"I'm sensitizing others to protect the minority," Nkunda said in a recent interview. "I want to be one of the great hearts in Congo."
He was relaxing in a Nike tracksuit at a farmhouse high on a hill, his soldiers standing guard outside. His current reading was a French book titled "The Paradox of Strategy." He talked at length about Congo's potential greatness, Christian leadership, Bush, military strategy and an idea he has of importing 100,000 macadamia nut trees to help develop his area. He spoke of biofuels.
Yet Nkunda insisted that his goals are limited: He wants the Congolese government to disarm the Hutu militias and to allow thousands of Congolese Tutsi refugees who fled into Rwanda during Congo's war to return home.
Instead of addressing those issues, he said, the Congolese government is "turning Nkunda into the problem," and planning to attack him.
At the moment, there are signs that the Congolese army could be preparing for such an offensive, which U.N. officials have warned could trigger a wider regional conflict.
Analysts fear that as his father did, Congo's President Joseph Kabila could decide to use the Hutu militias because the Congolese army is weak and because the Hutu commanders would like nothing more than to occupy Nkunda's position along the Rwandan border.
Murigande, the Rwandan foreign minister, said that such a move would "start worrying us seriously."
"That might be a disaster," he said. "Because we are also able to fight."
