The leader of thestrongest rebel group in eastern Democratic Repuiblic of Congo, General LaurentNkunda was arrested on Thursday on Rwandan territory after crossing the borderto Rwanda to resist arrest by a joint Rwandan-Congolese operation.
Earlier inthe week some 4,000 Rwandan troops had entered the DR Congo to help fight rebelforces in the area.
Reacting to Nkunda?s arrest Mduduzi Khumalo, a researchspecialist of the Peace and Security Unit at the Africa Institute of SouthAfrica told VOA reporter Akwei Thompson it was important that the renegade general was capturedby the joint force.
?Firstly, I?m happy that he was arrested, and I?malso happy about an important fact that he was not arrested by the DRC armedforces alone, but by the combined force between the Rwandan government and theDRC, said the South Africa-based analyst.?
Khumalo said theaccusation that Rwanda was sponsoringthe violence has been proved wrong. He attributed the blame game to one problem in Africa.
?That problem is ethnic composition anddistribution - geographically among the countries: Laurent Nkunda is as Rwandandeseas he is Congolese, he explained.?
?So Ithink the blame game that was going on that one was sponsoring the violenceand one was not sponsoring the violence has now been proved to be wrong becauseboth of these forces have been looking for him and have arrested him.?
Khumalo does not think that Nkunda will beextradicted to the DRC to face atrocities committed by his forces.
Playing down the implications ofNkunda?s arrest in the broader context of peace and stability in the region,Khumalo, referred to a new problem: the fact that the new leader of the rebelgroup, who took over from Nkunda earlier in the month, was still out there.