KIGALI, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda's Foreign Minister and Government Spokesperson Louise Mushikiwabo has confirmed that the ICC wanted war criminal Gen Bosco Ntanganda entered Rwanda on Monday morning and reported to the U. S. Embassy in Kigali.
Minister Mushikiwabo said, "We have just learned that Gen. Ntaganda presented himself at the U. S. Embassy early this morning. "
Mushikiwabo confirmed that the government is currently establishing further details on this evolving situation.
Public Affairs Officer of the U. S. Embassy in Kigali Susan Falatko also said, "Yes we can confirm, He walked into the Embassy this morning."
The U. S. State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, on a separate occasion, also confirmed the development, while addressing reporters in Washington.
"I can confirm that Bosco Ntaganda... walked into the U. S. Embassy in Kigali this morning. He specifically asked to be transferred to the ICC in The Hague. We are in contact with the court and the government of Rwanda to facilitate his request," she added.
Nuland said she could not speak about Ntaganda as to why he had approached the U. S. Embassy in Kigali, but she added, "We strongly support the ICC and their investigation on the atrocities committed in the DRC."
Ntaganda, known as "the terminator" for his love of frontline action, is said to be among fighters belonging to an M23 faction led by former political leader Jean-Marie Runiga.
Ntaganda and Runiga's faction had been fighting rivals loyal to the group's military chief Sultani Makenga.
Ntaganda was one of the top commanders in the militia led by Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, who was convicted in March last year by the ICC for crimes in the DRC.
In 2006, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Ntaganda, who was then a general in the DRC's national army, for crimes committed against civilians in the Ituri region of the DRC from 2002 to 2003.
He was again accused of having recruited under-age fighters in the province of North Kivu in the 2012 rebellion.
However, it is still unclear what the U. S. government, which had placed a 5 million U. S. dollars bounty on his head, will do with Ntaganda since it is not a signatory to The Hague-based ICC's founding document, the Rome Statute that establish the court.
Part of the ICC's indictment against "the terminator" includes war crimes and crimes against humanity including rape, murder and recruiting child soldiers.
Ntaganda is widely believed to have instigated a mutiny by former rebels of the National Congress for the Defense of People (CNDP), who had been integrated in the Congolese army after the March 2009 peace deal, but defected in April last year, forming the M23 movement.
He however left M23 later and went rogue.
In a related development, fighting between rival factions of the M23 last Friday sent 718 fighters led by Runiga and Ntaganda into fleeing to Rwanda.
The rebel fighters were disarmed and secured while Runiga is currently held in a yet to be known.
