In a move that shocked many observers, a alleged international war-criminal walked into the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda and requested he be transferred to The Hague to answer for his alleged crimes.

Confusion swirled following Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo announcing via Twitter that Gen. Bosco Ntaganda had surrendered willingly to the United States. The International Criminal Court first indicted Ntaganda for recruiting children in 2003 as part of a rebellion against the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but he has until now avoided capture.

The U.S. Embassy in Kigali was unable to confirm or deny Mushikiwabo’s statements for the next two hours, before State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland affirmed during her daily press briefing that Ntaganda was inside the Embassy. Complicating matters, neither the United States nor Rwanda are members of the Court, thus are not obliged to hand Ntaganda over. Instead, the U.S. is currently working with other countries to facilitate Ntaganda’s transfer to The Hague.

In the time since charges were filed against Ntaganda, he was first integrated into the Congolese armed forces as part of a peace deal, before defecting to lead yet another rebellion against the Congolese government — the M23 movement. A United Nations Group of Experts claimed in a report that the Rwandan government has been controlling the M23 as a proxy against the Congo. The United States has, in turn, been accused of running defense for Rwanda, protecting it from potential international condemnation. Rwanda’s ties to Ntaganda, however, became tenuous over time, as factions emerged within the M23:

“I’m sure he was much more scared of us than the [US] embassy because he has caused some friction,” a senior Rwandan military official told the FT, adding that he believed Gen Ntaganda feared for his life. “The information we had consistently coming from his people was that he was heading deeper and deeper into the forest but that was a deception to our intelligence.”

Ntaganda standing trial at the Hague is a much needed boost for the ten year-old ICC. Credibility is at a premium for the body, as its warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been frequently undermined by African leaders, and its indictment of Kenya’s President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta failed to keep him from winning his country’s recent election.

With the world focused on the conflict in Gaza and President Obama’s trip to Asia, rebel forces taking a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has received little attention. Members of the M23 group on Tuesday seized control of the border-town of Goma, a city of a little over one million inhabitants, capturing its radio station and parading downtown.

The fall of Goma is the latest move in one of Africa’s longest and bloodiest conflicts. Complicating the matter is Rwanda’s alleged support for the rebels. While M23 rebels on Monday withdrew to positions further from Goma to provide space for political talks, putting forward a list of demands in order to seal a cease-fire, the Congolese government rebuffed the offer.

That refusal set off the current clashes between Congo’s army and rebels, leading to an army withdrawal and M23 control of Goma. The Rwandan and Congolese presidents are reported to be meeting today to help defuse the crisis. The Ugandan government meanwhile, also accused of supporting M23, has said that it has called for calm, while blaming a U.N. report for the new violence.

M23′s rise can be seen as a continuation of events in 2008, during which another Rwandan-backed group known as the CNDP sowed chaos in resource-rich Eastern Congo. After the European Union threatened to intervene, the solution at the time, agreed to on Mar. 23, 2009, was to integrate the CNDP into the Congolese army. Instead of forging a lasting peace, many of those same soldiers defected earlier this year to form the M23, led by wanted war-criminal Gen. Bosco Ntaganda.

NGOs such as Amnesty International and others are highlighting the plight that internally displaced citizens face caught in the cross-fire, as thousands have fled. Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator Tariq Riebl, currently on the ground near Goma, said yesterday, “Families have been split up overnight and people are desperately going between sites trying to find loved ones. If fighting intensifies further, there are very few places people can go for safety. With almost 2.5 million people now displaced across eastern Congo, this catastrophe requires a concerted humanitarian and diplomatic response.”

Meanwhile, members of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Congo, the largest in the world with 6,700 blue helmets in the North Kivu region alone, had utilized attack helicopters to bolster Congolese assaults on M23 positions for months, and retains control of Goma’s airport. However, the U.N. has reported that is pulling “non-essential personnel” from Eastern Congo as a precaution and the peacekeepers were unable to prevent Goma’s fall.

At the United Nations Security Council, French diplomats are currently circulating a draft resolution expressing its intention to impose financial and travel sanctions on the M23′s political and military supporters. While the text does not specifically call out Rwanda or Uganda, the draft is in line with a proposal put forward last week by a U.N. Group of Experts to apply these bans to the Rwandan Defense Minister. Rwanda is due to join the Council as a rotating member in Jan. 2013, a position that is facing intensifying scrutiny. The U.S. has not provided comment at this time whether they support France’s draft, which is due to be voted upon at 5:30 PM EST.

A United Nations Group of Experts (GoE) has suggested a new target for sanctions related to the ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: the Rwandan Minister of Defense. The experts offered Defense Minister James Kabarebe’s name up for blacklisting due to his suspected role in arming and leading the M23 rebel group in the Congo, as detailed in a report earlier this year.

The GoE made its pitch to the United Nations Security Council committee responsible for sanctions on the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday. While no action was taken on that specific suggestion, the committee did decide to send forward the rebel leader Sultani Makenga to the full Council for potential repercussions. Among the punishments that the U.N. has at its disposal for individuals accused of breaching international peace and security are travel bans, freezing of financial assets, and even potential referral to the International Criminal Court.

Drama of being named aside, the question of whether the Security Council will take action against any Rwandan officials is a different story:

Diplomats said it was unlikely the council would find the consensus necessary to add any Rwandans to the U.N. blacklist.

“But the fact that the Group of Experts would make this recommendation will itself send a strong political message to Rwanda about the need to curtail support for M23 rebels,” another diplomatic source said.

The accusations against Kabarebe have prompted the United States, Sweden and the Netherlands to suspend some aid to Rwanda, which relies on donors for about 40 percent of its budget. In September the European Union froze further budgetary support to Rwanda.

Even a slim chance that a member of President Paul Kagame’s cabinet be sanctioned puts Rwanda in an interesting position. Rwanda was elected last month to join the Security Council for a two-year term, starting in January. While no vote will likely come of the GoE’s suggestion at this point, it does still lend itself to the potential that further revelations of the link between Rwanda and the M23 could spur a U.N. response. In that event, Rwandan diplomats would have their work cut out for them.

The situation has the potential to be awkward for for U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice as well. Rice, thought to be the front runner for the position of Secretary of State once Hillary Clinton departs, is particularly close with Kagame. Also, the United States has been accused of holding back the release of the initial GoE report that accused Rwanda of aiding the Congolese rebels, possibly at the behest of Rice.

In a landslide victory, the East African country Rwanda has been elected to serve a two year term on the United Nations Security Council. The win comes at a time when Rwanda is under increased scrutiny for its potential role in facilitating a rebellion across the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

An armed rebel group known as the M23 has been launching assaults against the Congolese army and civilians in the country’s east for months now. Composed of mutinous former Congolese soldiers, the M23 have proved a major challenge for the Congolese government and the United Nations peacekeeping mission tasked with assisting in protecting civilians. A U.N. Group of Experts (GoE) charged with reporting on the situation in the DR Congo have implicated the Rwandan and Ugandan governments in not just complicity with the M23 militia, but providing direct support and leadership.

Reuters obtained a copy of the GoE’s forthcoming report on Tuesday:

“The Government of Rwanda continues to violate the (U.N.) arms embargo through direct military support to M23 rebels, facilitation of recruitment, encouragement and facilitation of FARDC (Congolese army) desertions as well as the provision of arms and ammunition, intelligence, and political advice,” said the report, which was seen in full by Reuters.[...]

“M23′s de facto chain of command includes General Bosco Ntaganda and culminates with the Rwandan Minister of Defence General James Kabarebe,” said the experts, who monitor compliance with U.N. sanctions and an arms embargo on the Congo.

The report also singles out Uganda for providing “troop reinforcements … weapons deliveries, technical assistance, joint planning, political advice and facilitation of external relations.” In all, the GoE document further clarifies the annex to an interim report issued several months previously, going into much greater detail about the DR Congo’s neighbors’ level of involvement with the M23 rebels. Rwanda at the time strongly denounced the findings of the interim report and its annex.

Both Uganda and Rwanda have denied the substance of the new report. Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo slammed what she called a “political campaign”:

“Every UN member-state should find cause for concern that these expert panels feel entitled to treat sovereign states in such an appalling fashion,” she said. “Who are these unelected, unaccountable individuals to abuse the authority granted to them by the UN to pursue political vendettas and deny even basic procedural fairness to a country like Rwanda, a member of the United Nations for half a century?”

As a non-permanent member of the Security Council, Rwanda won’t have the same powers that permanent members such as Russia and the United States have to veto resolutions. However, their place on the Council gives them a strong perch to defend themselves from sanctions and other punishments. Such a position isn’t without precedent. The sole previous instance when Rwanda held a Security Council seat was in the midst of the 1994 genocide.

Due to the way Security Council elections are held, Rwanda was almost certain to gain a seat: it ran unopposed. Nominations are typically decided in advance by the regional groupings to whom seats are allocated. The African Group in particular is extremely strict about maintaining its rotation, and this year the seat was due to go to a country from East Africa. None stepped forward to take Rwanda’s place, though Ghana is rumored to have been willing to take up the nomination if asked, despite being out of rotation.

Rwanda will be joining Argentina, Australia, the Republic of Korea, and Luxembourg in sitting on the Security Council from Jan. 1, 2013 until Dec. 31, 2014. The five will be replacing Germany, Portugal, India, South Africa, and Colombia.