 [REUTERS] Uganda is holding the military commander of Congo's defeated M23 rebel movement after he surrendered, a Ugandan officer said on Thursday, as relief at the end of his rebellion was tempered by concerns about other gangs.
Sultani Makenga's whereabouts had been unclear since Tuesday's declaration by the M23 that it was ending its 20-month insurgency in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo , which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
, worrying some that he could be hiding with plans to regroup.
His surrender will be seen as a major achievement for the Congolese army, with the backing of a U.N. force, as it strives to restore calm in a region racked by war for two decades.
But analysts have warned against too much optimism for a sustained peace in the mineral-rich east of the vast nation, where a plethora of other groups still operate.
"I can confirm to you he (Makenga) is with us," the senior Ugandan officer, who asked not to be named, told Rooters.
"He surrendered to us yesterday (Wednesday) and we're holding him somewhere and some other commanders of his," he said, adding the group of rebels would be held at some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location until a peace agreement was signed.
The Congolese government had no immediate comment.
The M23 group declared an end to its military campaign and said it would seek political talks after Congolese troops routed them from their hide-outs with U.N. support.
Captain Ronald Kakurungu, a front man for Uganda's army, said 1,500 M23 rebels had surrendered and disarmed.
That figure is higher than most previous estimates of the strength of the M23, which experts had generally believed to have dwindled in recent months to a few hundred.
Bertrand Bisimwa, M23's political leader, did not confirm any numbers but said in a statement fighters had crossed into Uganda as they felt unsafe joining a disarmament process run by the same U.N. and government forces they had fought against.
While recognizing the successes of the joint U.N.-Congo force, analysts said the defeat of the M23 did not mean that a return of order in Congo's east was assured.
"Just because you think you've beaten back the M23 rabble rousers in the east, do you really think it can become a stable country? I don't think so," said Martyn Davies, chief executive of the Johannesburg-based Frontier Advisory.
"This time next year, you'll be looking at an 'M24'," he said.
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