Rwanda is open to extraditing Laurent Nkunda as long as he does not face the death penalty in his homeland. Once feared in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the former Congolese rebel leader has been living under house arrest in the Rwandan capital Kigali for more than two years. What happens to Nkunda could influence relations between Kinshasa and Kigali. Congo wants him extradited for war crimes, but Rwanda says it should be done in a way that it avoids "conflict of law".

Nkunda once led a force of an estimated 4,500 men called the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP). The group purported to protect minority Tutsis in the eastern Kivu provinces but the United Nations and human rights groups say it has uprooted hundreds of thousands of people. He was arrested in January 2009 in a deal between Kinshasa and Kigali, but Rwanda has not yet decided what to do with him.

Up to now, Rwanda has not started proceedings against him. But in a new turn Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said on Monday that Kigali is "talking to the Congolese authorities with regard to his extradition," adding that there are still some hurdles. "It's difficult for us to extradite a person to a country that has not abolished the death penalty even with certain guarantees," she said.

But a possible death sentence is not the only concern. Nkunda's arrest was key to a deal between the Great Lakes neighbours to end the region's conflicts and ultimately to crush Hutu rebels. Rwandan and Congolese soldiers - including Nkunda's former men - then jointly turned their guns on the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a splinter group of Rwanda's former Interahamwe militia.

Nkunda's arrest heralded a new era in relations between the two African states, but what happens to Nkunda could still influence relations, Mushikiwabo explained.

"There is also the political aspect which makes his extradition difficult because we in Rwanda want lasting stability so everything that has a tendency to destabilise and to take us back to the (era of) conflict and confrontation remains delicate," she added.

Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said that Nkunda's position as a soldier with supporters and his own military force meant that his case could not be treated like everybody else. "It's a delicate issue not just about extradition, but generally legal and political aspects and the stability of the region," he said. "It's difficult for Rwanda, Congo and even Ndunka. We hope that soon there will be a lasting solution."

Rwanda connection
Laurent Nkunda Batware's life is intertwined with the history of the Tutsi in Rwanda and Congo. Nkunda was born in Congo as one of the sons of thousands of Tutsis who fled Rwanda's ethnic persecutions in the 1960's. He studied psychology and was a school teacher before he took up arms. In 1993 he joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front's (RPF) rebellion against the Hutu regime in Rwanda. After the 1994 genocide, Nkunda was among the fighters who invaded Congo to rout Hutu extremists.

Nkunda stayed in Congo. He fought alongside Laurent Kabila's rebels who overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997 but shifted sides to a Rwandan-backed militia - the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD)- during the country's back-to-back civil wars. He turned down a promotion to 'Général major' in the Congolese army (FARDC) because he believed it supported Hutu rebels. He then retreated with hundreds of his former troops to the forests of Masisi in North Kivu where he was said to have been protecting Congolese Tutsis from genocide.

Atrocities
Although Nkunda fought in both the Rwandan and Congolese conflicts, he first came to public prominence when he led the brutal repression of an attempted mutiny in Kisangani in 2002, where more than 160 civilians were summarily executed. Two years later, he captured Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, where his men allegedly went on a killing spree, torturing and raping civilians. Human Rights Watch also reported that Nkunda's forces killed at least 150 people in Kiwanja in late 2008.

Kinshasa issued an arrest warrant for Nkunda in September 2005, charging him with desertion and war crimes.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has not publicly indicted Nkunda, but has opened investigations into the actions of his militia as the UN has accused his CNDP of serious human rights abuses, including sexual violence and recruitment of child soldiers during his five-year rebellion in eastern Congo. The CNDP's current leader, Bosco Ntaganda, has been promoted to general in the Congolese army while he is wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ituri.

Expired arrest warrant
Until today, Rwanda has not taken Nkunda to court or yielded to Congolese calls to extradict him to Kinshasa to face charges of war crimes and desertion. Meanwhile, the Congolese indictments against Nkunda have expired and have not yet been re-validated. Nor have any new arrest warrants been issued.