From The Washington Post:Conflict Has Plagued Region Since 1994.
KIGALI, Rwanda, Jan. 23 -- The arrest of renegade Congolese Gen. Laurent Nkunda by his former Rwandan allies portends a dramatic shift in a complex conflict that has raged and simmered across the region since 1994, when the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide spilled across the border into eastern Congo.
The Rwandan troops moved against Nkunda late Thursday during a joint military operation with Congolese forces whose main purpose is to dismantle the Rwandan Hutu militias that organized in Congo after the genocide and have remained.
The operation is part of a wider political and economic deal to smooth over the perennially caustic relationship between Congo and Rwanda, which has fueled a conflict estimated to have taken as many as 5 million Congolese lives and displaced more than a million people over the past decade.
Nkunda, a brash leader fond of sharp suits and gold-tipped canes, began his rebel career by declaring that he was protecting Congo's minority Tutsis from the militias, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR. He was supported by Rwanda, who shared his complaint that the Congolese army had failed to disarm the militias.
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My Comment: The Congo wars has resulted in a death toll that is now in the millions. The arrest of renegade Congolese Gen. Laurent Nkunda by his former Rwandan allies has resulted in a shift in the war tempo of the region, but will it stop the war .... the answer is no.
The problems in the Congo are the result of more than one man. It is tribal, ethnic, religious, economic and social. There is a long history of hate .... and this is going to continue.
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