BBC News, 07 May 2009
MPs in the Democratic Republic of Congo have passed a law granting amnesty to militias in the east of the country.
It is the culmination of various deals to bring peace to the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, a BBC correspondent in Kinshasa says.
It will include “acts of war” committed since 2003 but does not offer amnesty to those accused of war crimes such as rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
Gen Nkunda remains in detention in Rwanda since his arrest in January.
DR Congo has applied for his extradition.
A Tutsi like Rwanda’s leaders, Gen Nkunda had guarded Rwanda’s western flank against attacks ethnic Rwandan Hutu rebels – the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) – some of whose leaders have been linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende told the BBC the amnesty would only to apply to Congolese militia and would not cover crimes committed by foreign rebel groups.
