The Times has a good profile of Gen. Laurent Nkunda, Congo’s rebel leader who has come close to toppling the country's government. Nkunda’s military advances this fall were met with little resistance from Congo’s military or international bodies until he agreed to a ceasefire. The Times paints him as grandiose: Nkunda speaks of himself in the third person; wears a pin that reads “Rebels for Christ”; and “prefers to be photographed holding a scepter capped by a silver-plated eagle’s head.” Stories from inside the territory controlled by Nkunda show him not to be averse to mass killings and levying crippling taxes on farmers. Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila, is the nation's first democratically elected leader in 40 years.
Read it at The New York Times
