By Emma Thomasson
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court isseeking the arrest of a fourth Congolese militia leader knownas "the Terminator", who is wanted for conscripting childsoldiers, the court said on Tuesday.
Bosco Ntaganda, 35, is the chief of staff of renegade TutsiGeneral Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence ofthe People (CNDP) which is fighting in the violence-ravagedNorth Kivu province in Congo's east.
He is also a former associate of Congolese warlord ThomasLubanga whose trial at the ICC is due to start on June 23.
"We count on all concerned states, authorities and actorsto contribute to his arrest and surrender him to the court,"prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement, adding thatNtaganda was accused of conscripting child soldiers.
"He must be stopped if we want to break the system ofviolence. For such criminals, there must be no escape. Thenpeace will have a chance. Then victims will have hope."
Three months after Democratic Republic of Congo'sgovernment signed a peace deal with rebel and militia groups inthe violent east, humanitarian workers report insecurity isstill badly hampering their efforts to help thousands ofdisplaced people.
Along with Lubanga, two other Congolese militia leaders arein detention at the ICC, the world's first permanent war crimescourt set up in 2002. The court is also investigating warcrimes in Uganda, Sudan and the Central African Republic.
The court said in a statement Ntaganda was previouslydeputy chief of the general staff of the FPLC military wing ofthe Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) led by Lubanga.
"He is alleged to have committed war crimes of enlistmentand conscription of children under the age of 15 and of usingthem to participate actively in hostilities," it said.
The court said it had decided to unseal the arrest warrantagainst Ntaganda that was originally issued in 2006 because itno longer believed it might endanger witnesses.
"UNSPEAKABLE CRUELTY"
The prosecution said he had since moved from Ituri to NorthKivu, where he joined Nkunda's CNDP. Nearly a half millionNorth Kivu residents fled on-and-off fighting throughout 2007.
"The CNDP is one of the groups against which there arecredible reports of serious crimes committed in the two Kivuprovinces including sexual crimes of unspeakable cruelty," itsaid.
The prosecution said it expected more applications forarrest warrants in the coming months and years in relation toits ongoing investigation into crimes committed in the Kivuregion and into those who financed the militias.
U.N. agencies suspended some relief operations in the NorthKivu province last week as renewed fighting threatened refugeecamps and food distribution despite a January peace deal.
The conflict in the eastern province has raged on longafter the official end of a 1998-2003 war. The fighting pitsCongolese Tutsi insurgents against Rwandan Hutu FDLR fightersand also involves the army and other militia groups. It has itsroots in neighbouring Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which Hutumilitants slaughtered around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Experts say 5.4 million people have perished in Congo's1998-2003 war and the resulting humanitarian disaster, mostfrom hunger and disease linked to the conflict. The continuingcrisis in the vast, former Belgian colony, makes it the world'smost deadly conflict since the Second World War.
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