LAURENT NKUNDA

clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk

others see him as a Rwandan stooge and the biggest reason why DR Congo is yet to benefit from landmark elections in 2006

Human Rights Watch says his troops have been implicated in numerous killings, torture and rapes.

Gen Nkunda says there is a "state of war" in eastern DR Congo and especially his home region of North Kivu.

His force, estimated to be several thousand strong has remained in Goma



He fought in both the Rwandan and Congolese conflicts but first came to widespread notice when he led his forces into the Congolese town of Bukavu in 2004.

He said he was protecting Congolese Tutsis, known as the Banyamulenge, from "genocide"

there had been some attacks on Banyamulenge in Bukavu,
Most local people believed it was all a pretext

Although he was born in DR Congo, he fought with the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the rebel movement formed by Rwandan Tutsi exiles, which took control of Rwanda in 1994, ending the genocide.

After that Laurent Nkunda returned home to join Rwanda's adventures in DR Congo.

He was a commander in the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) - the main rebel group which controlled most of eastern DR Congo during the five-year civil war.

He was accused of committing atrocities in 2002 as a commander in the diamond-rich town of Kisangani.

Rwanda has twice invaded DR Congo, saying it wants to stop these rebel groups from staging cross-border attacks.

Some accuse Gen Nkunda of still following orders from his former comrades-in-arms in Kigali.