A week and a half ago - three weeks after giving his NKUNDA LAST CONGO INTERVIEW on January 3, 2009 - Laurent Nkunda was arrested by Rwanda after being lured there under pretense of discussing the implementation of the Nairobi peace accords dedicated to attacking Congo's negative forces - the genocidal Rwandan Hutus and Congolese Mai-Mai, among others.

Laurent Nkunda arrested in Rwanda. London Guardian, Jan 22, 2009

Since that time, not a word has been heard from Nkunda - except from the Rwandan authorities saying that he is not in prison but in a safe house.

I pray this is true but my journalistic skepticism is that I can't really believe it until I hear it from his own words. I don't understand why no journalist has had access to Nkunda since his arrest - or if they have why they aren't reporting what Nkunda has to say. Being satisfied that he is safe would be a tremendous relief to we who believe in his cause for Congo, including the millions of people - and animals - he was protecting. ~ Jackie Jura

NKUNDA GEURILLA GORILLA TOURS

NKUNDA CONGO CREDENTIALS ("...If I can tell you what I know about these gorillas, it's that they are so comfortable for me because.... this is my born area. And I'm a local chief here. If I was not in the army you would have found me in Bunagana as a local chief...Yes, I'm a local chief of this area. These gorillas are in my born area and in my local responsibility area. I have their interest to protect them and to let them grow."...)

Now excerpts of Nkunda last Congo interview discussing gorillas (questions in italics):

If you remember in 2006 - when there were some gorilla killings - everybody blamed you immediately. There was no proof, but you were blamed and since then you are always portrayed in a very negative way in Western media. Would you say that's true?

I heard about. No it's not true, and it was not true. Because even after that there were evidences that gorillas were killed in an area under control of the government forces.

And after that, some gorillas were even found in Goma when some of their - the one who was in charge of the regional Nature Conversation Bureau - was selling gorillas in Goma. And an investigation was heard by Kinshasa and the provincial director of ICCN was arrested.

I know the whole story...

Yes. It was only a campaign against CNDP.

But gorillas - there were now two group of gorillas at that time because we were in this area. I was only controlling this area under the three mountain you are seeing there. And the gorillas in our area were safe.

But on the side of Rumangabo - that's where gorillas were killed. And this area was not under our control.

We attacked Rumangabo only the last year - in August. But the two years - and even before - Rumangabo, and this gorilla site of Bukima, was under the government control.

So it was only, what can I say - a campaign against CNDP.

Are there any journalists that you trust, that you like?

Sometimes I met some from CNN. They did other things I didn't expect.

I met some from National Geographic magazine. They were here. They did somehow a report.*

Did you see that report?

Yeah, I saw.

What did you think of it?

It was...some deliberated reports and, it was balanced, balanced.

You thought it was balanced?

Yeah, there were many, many true things. Because they followed, also, the investigation about the director.

And when they met me I told them: Go and see where we are, and where gorilla were killed. And ask - instead of telling it from in America, from in UK, from .... You see. It's not normal; go and see. And they came....What I found in them - it was this volunteer, this will to come and see - and for me it was....Whenever you can be, whenever you can want to protect, the best way to protect is to go close to your.... If you want to protect the gorilla you have to come where gorillas are - not tell the story from America, from UK, from.... from Europe. No.

Exactly...

That's what I got from these journalists from National Geographic magazine. They came here and I showed them that they are going to be secured.

And even when they slept in our defence, gorillas came in the morning. And they saw gorillas in the camp because I took some rangers there. They were doing training to my soldiers to know how to take care of gorillas because they are - as they told me - gorillas are fragile. And they can die from only a small thing you give him. And my soldiers were trained in that matter - those who were working in this area.

So gorillas were very kind to them - as when they were coming they saw that they are not aggressive. Gorillas were thinking that soldiers are rangers - as far as they were very close to them. And my soldiers knew how to deal with them.

So these journalists from National Geographic magazine slept in our defence.

In the morning, early, they heard someone doing this (scratching) on the tent. And when they opened, it was gorillas.

(laughter)

So they say: Ah, is it true; can they come in your defence?

Then they called me - because I was in Masisi - and they said: What we saw is all that you told us. And I reply, I say: That is why I say to you: Go and see - not tell from Goma or Kinshasa; go and see....

People are using the gorillas as one way to condemn you, along with others. So I want them to understand that you understand how important gorillas are.

Of course. They have diplomacy; they have radio. The only way to show Nkunda as a criminal is to say that he is eating gorillas.

(laughter)

Yes. But even in our culture we cannot eat a gorilla. No.

You see, journalists also are coming for getting - I think - money. Because I was very disappointed by the behaviour of the CNN monitor who came here.

Do you remember the name of the of the person?

Yes, I can get it....

And he was led by a bandit. Just understand: The one who came last time - with this so-called panel, Security Council panel - he's a bandit. He's known in North Kivu and South Kivu like a bandit.

And he brought him?

He was doing business with FDLR in South Kivu. And when I see U.N. using him like an expert....

That's disappointing.

And he's the one who led the team from CNN.

But there is some kind of person I respect.

What's the kind of person you respect?

Only the one who tell the truth.

Tell the truth on me. Don't add - even in a way you think it will be good for me. No, don't add. But also, don't reduce. Tell the truth. Be in the middle. Because you are informing the world. The world is seeing you like the one who knows. You see? Yeah.

That's what CNN didn't do at the time. Because they came; they interview me. But when they showed on their TV - they cutted my voice. And they were speaking on my behalf. They put their own comments. And it was not good.

No, that won't happen.

We are in an area. Now you are in the area. That's why I said - when they told me that you are coming, and because you are involved, not from today, but in the nature conservation - that's why I said, even if it was not my time to receive - but I will receive you. Because you are not here for journalism. But you are here for the nature....

...And today, if you can go, you are going to see other things you never knew from here, or you never heard from here. Because now we've got many new families of gorillas. And even they are...they have many children...Yea, 10% of growth. It was established by the new director of ICCN, the provincial director of ICCN, a Belgian called Demeroid Emmanuel. He came here and he was very surprised because when I met him I told him if you came in Congo to protect gorillas, don't take care of what you want, or because you are appointed by the government. I said there's no problem you coming to protect the gorillas. I'll receive you like that, not like a governmental operative, but like someone coming to help to conserve the nature.

... If I can tell you what I know about these gorillas, it's that they are so comfortable for me because it's a...it's a...let me tell you, let me figure it....I told him that it is a wealth who cannot finish.

I told him that it's a wealth who cannot finish. I told him petrol, you can dig petrol and it will finish; you can have colton, or gold, or diamond but one day it will finish. But gorillas cannot finish.

And I tell always my guys - even the local population - that it's a work that will not finish. Instead of finish, it grows. When we are exploiting it, it grows. yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I always tell them - even the population - to protect the gorillas because the only wealth we can have in North Kivu is these gorillas.

And my soldiers knows very well that. And this is my born area. And I'm a local chief here. If I was not in the army you would have found me in Bunagana as a local chief.

You were the chief of Bunagana?

Yes, I'm a local chief of this area. These gorillas are in my born area and in my local responsibility area. I have their interest to protect them and to let them grow....

...When I tell you that you protect gorillas, you are protecting also the wealth for Jomba, for Rutshuru, for North Kivu. yeah. And to protect the gorillas, you are going to also develop these people, so that they can understand that gorillas are not a threat against them, but its wealth....

*National Geographic, July 2008 (Rebel general Nkunda, who prefers to be called the "Chairman," wages war against the Congolese army and Hutu militias from a farmhouse near Kirolirwe, just west of Virunga Park. Accused of using child soldiers and other war crimes, Nkunda claims he is protectng the Congolese Tutsi from genocide at the hands of the Hutu. He also claims he is a conservationist....)

Who murdered the virunga gorillas, National Geographic, July 2008

NKUNDA ARREST PUTS GORILLAS AT RISK. National Geographic News, January 23, 2009

NKUNDA'S CONGO CREDENTIALS

Going home: orphans of the gorilla massacre that shocked the world
Independent, Dec 3, 2009
Moving home is often stressful and sometimes positively traumatic. The last time Ndeze and Ndakasi moved it was horrifying. The two mountain gorilla babies had just been orphaned, their parents murdered in a dispute that led to the sacking of the director of Virunga National Park in eastern Congo. One of the orphan's fathers, Senkwekwe, became internationally famous as pictures of the silverback's immense corpse borne aloft on a bamboo trellis by grieving villagers ran in newspapers and magazines around the world. The massacres of 2007 left seven of the critically endangered mammals dead; they also left Ndeze and Ndakasi without a family. Ndakasi was found, at two-months-old, clinging to his dead mother, who had been shot at close range. The pair found themselves in the refugee city of Goma, an unstable mustering point for the human disasters that echo from Lake Albert through the volcano valleys of Virunga to the shore of Lake Kivu. It's a place ringed by refugee camps, periodically evacuated by Western aid workers and occasionally burned to the ground by the eruptions of Nyiragongo volcano to its north.... The rangers themselves had to evacuate from the park midway through last year when their base was overrun by the army of renegade general Laurent Nkunda. He is now under house arrest in neighbouring Rwanda and the team is back in the Mikeno volcano sector, guarding the great apes....

Rwandan Hutus threatening Congo gorillas (hide in Virunga Park after massacring civilians). OzAge, Jun 12, 2009