KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — In a marked turnaround, Congo's president called Wednesday for the arrest of a notorious ex-warlord and army general, who has been allowed to walk freely despite an international indictment, an official said.

Bosco Ntaganda is accused of using child soldiers for fighting in Ituri, in northeastern Congo, from 2002 to 2003. He was first indicted on war crimes charges in 2006 by the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court.

President Joseph Kabila said Ntaganda should be arrested and face a military tribunal in Congo, presidential spokesman Andre Ngwej told The Associated Press by telephone. Kabila made the comments during a meeting with community leaders in the country's remote eastern province of North Kivu.

In the past, Kabila had refused calls to hand over Ntaganda, arguing his cooperation was essential to keeping the peace in the troubled east of the country where numerous local militias and foreign rebels operate. Ntaganda was integrated into the Congolese army along with his men.

The integration has allowed large portions of eastern Congo to come under the dominion of Ntaganda's troops, who are largely from the Tutsi ethnic group and are accused of brutalizing other communities.

Kabila's announcement follows clashes this week between troops loyal to Ntaganda and other soldiers in the Congolese army in the eastern town of Rutshuru, according to the army spokesman for eastern Congo, Maj. Sylvain Ikenge.

Ikenge said that a colonel and a major responsible for the mutiny had fled into the bush with a small number of troops. "But everything is calm in Rutshuru today and 90 percent of the troops have remained loyal to the government," he said.

Human Rights Watch expert on Congo Anneke van Woudenberg, whose organization has been fighting for Ntaganda's arrest, welcomed the announcement. She said, however, that Kabila spoke in Swahili and that she was still waiting for the full translation in order to ascertain the level of Kabila's commitment.

"Indeed, he seems to be alluding to Bosco's arrest. What is significant is that President Kabila has changed his mind on Bosco," she said. "It's a welcome step in the right direction. We now need to turn this into action."

Source: Associated Press

Associated Press writers Michelle Faul and Rukmini Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.

DAKAR, Senegal — A series of explosions at a weapons depot in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, killed scores of people on Sunday, according to Congolese Web sites and news agency dispatches.

A man was treated at a hospital on Sunday after multiple explosions occurred at a munitions depot in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. Witness described collapsed houses and panic in the streets.

The Web site Les Dépêches de Brazzaville spoke of 150 dead, said houses had “collapsed” in the neighborhood and reported that “panic” had taken hold of neighborhoods in the city. The Associated Press said that the number of dead was at least 206 and reported that countless others were trapped in the ruins of collapsed buildings.

Officials at the American Embassy in Brazzaville reported seeing “hundreds of injured” at hospitals, according to a statement from the embassy. The explosions were powerful enough to destroy windows across the river in Kinshasa in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, said witnesses and the United Nations-supported station Radio Okapi in Kinshasa. Radio Okapi said the Makelele Hospital in Brazzaville was “overflowing” with “severely wounded” victims of the blasts.

Didier Boutsindi of the presidential office told The A.P. that an untold number of people were trapped in St. Louis church, which collapsed.

“Many of the faithful are trapped in the debris of the church,” he said. “Several of the dead have been taken out, and I confirm there are more deaths inside.”

The explosions began around 8 a.m. and were apparently caused by a fire at the depot, which is at the Regiment Blindé military barracks in Brazzaville, according to the embassy statement. The explosions destroyed and damaged homes in the neighborhoods around the barracks, the embassy said.

The explosions were “very powerful,” according to the Congolese Web site mwinda.org, which spoke of “several hundred” dead along with “substantial” physical destruction. The Web site quoted the minister of defense, Charles Zacharie Bowao, as apologizing on the television station Télé Congo for the “inconvenience,” and blaming an “unfortunate fire” for the explosions. He asserted that the explosions were not due to a “coup d’état” or a “mutiny.”

Source: The New York Times

The recent presidential and legislative elections in DR Congo have been opportunities for internal and external enemies of our country, to mercilessly pursue the poor indigenous population in eastern Congo.

In its determination to invade and annex the east of DR Congo, Rwanda has tried unsuccessfully to conquer by pitched battles, now opted for a more subtle and certainly more profitable for the systematic elimination and irreversible of Aboriginal by way of silent genocide. Mass killings of people, annihilation of entire villages, and other weapons of war that are the rape of women, girls, girls and even men, targeted killings of people mostly: local leaders, civil society leaders, merchants, teachers, priests, religious, etc..

And all this is perpetrated in a complacent silence of the Congolese government and the International Community.

Rwandan instruments of execution of the genocide are on one side the CNDP and the Rwandan troops and the FDLR on the other, both acting as bridgeheads for the acceleration of the invasion and annexation of the east of Congo into Rwanda.

Source: BUSHENGE-WEST

By: Jennifer Fierberg, MSW

Imagine the entire state population of Arizona murdered in an 11year period by neighboring rebel groups, all six million people. The women of Phoenix, Flagstaff, Camp Verde and other cities brutally raped while their children and husbands watched. After this horrific act of war, the husbands are shot, dismembered and the women left bleeding and ruined in their communities. For the men who do survive they are unable to look at their wives for the shame they suffered by not being able to protect them from the atrocities that occurred. Imagine the children who were forced to watch their mothers being violently raped and their fathers murdered only to meet the same fate at their tender ages. For those children who were not killed they would be taken as child soldiers and “bush wives” to the rebels. The entire state of Arizona left in ruins with only the stench of dead bodies littered everywhere. Now imagine that the mainstream media ignores the entire 11 year massacre. Fox news, CNN, MSNBC all report on elections, high-speed car chases and celebrity divorces and never once mention that the entire state of Arizona has been massacred. This should seem outlandish yet it is happening every day in the Democratic Republic of Congo.