France launches investigation into ex-DRC rebel chief

Roger Lumbala has been accused of "complicity in crimes against humanity" for his actions during the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002.

French anti-terrorism prosecutors said Monday they opened an investigation into the former leader of a rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Roger Lumbala has been accused of "complicity of crimes against humanity" committed during the country's second civil war, prosecutors said.

Lumbala was a leader of an armed group known as the Congolese Rally for Democracy-National (RCD-N) during the conflict between 1998 and 2003. The charges against him particularly concern his actions in 2002, prosecutors told news agency AFP.

The probe was announced after he was arrested in Paris on Saturday.

Criticized by the UN

The United Nations suspects the group of carrying out extrajudicial killings and mass rapes, implicating Lumbala in a statement in December 2002.

"The Secretary-General calls on (Congolese Liberation Movement) MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba and RCD-N leader Roger Lumbala to restrain their forces from further advances," said the statement issued by the spokesman of then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"He reminds those responsible for violating humanitarian law that the international community will hold them accountable for their actions," after the RCD-N signed earlier peace agreements.

A report came out the following month from the UN Organization in the DRC (MONUC), which said there was "systemic looting and rape" as well as executions and abductions by the MLC and RCDN "during their occupation of Mambasa territory in the latter part" of 2002.

The UN has said the RCD-N was also responsible for massacres of the Pygmy community in the north-east of the country, as well as cannibalism. Lumbala has rejected accusations against him.

Former opposition lawmaker

After the conflict, Lumbala became a minister in the country's transitional government between 2004 and 2005 and was also a former opposition lawmaker.

DRC authorities accused Lumbala of high treason and complicity with M23 rebels, who were defeated in November 2013 by an offensive from the government and UN authorities.

The investigation into Lumbala comes less than two months after another DRC ex-militia leader was handed a life sentence for war crimes.

The charges against Roger Lumbala concern his actions in 2002 during the country's civil war