afrol News, 6 May - The Congolese warlord and renegade, Laurent Nkunda may be saved from extradition to his country as Rwandan officials fear his trail in Congo could end in the handing of a death penalty against him.

Latest reports have pointed that Rwanda is seeking for mr Nkunda to be transferred to a neutral country, where he can be tried for his war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mr Nkunda, who led a brutal five-year rebellion in the east of DR Congo, was captured was arrested on 22 January on the Rwandan territory after trying to resist an arrest by the joint Rwandan-Congolese operation in the eastern DR Congo, and has since been under house arrest.

The Rwandan court last week ruled out an urgent application by lawyers of the former rebel leader, that he was illegally held in Gisenyi by the Rwandan soldiers.

The Congolese government has been seeking the extradition of General Nkunda since his arrest early this year, however, the Rwandan government has been reluctant to release him fearing possible rights violations and unfair trial. Rwanda has maintained that though Mr Nkunda is a Congolese, while in the Rwandan territory, the laws of Rwanda shall apply to him.

Mr Nkunda, who was ousted as leader of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) in January had claimed to be fighting to protect the region's ethnic Tutsi minority from Hutu militias that took refuge there after participating in the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.

The CNDP launched a major offensive against the government troops and other armed groups in the eastern DRC in August 2008.

The upsurge in fighting in North Kivu province bordering Rwanda and growing involvement of neighbouring states in a move to end the conflict had raised fears of a repeat of the 1998 to 2003 DRC war.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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