* U.S., Britain, France call for Sheka's arrest
* Security Council renews Congo sanctions (Adds Security Council renewal of sanctions in paragraph 6)
By Patrick Worsnip
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - A U.N. Security Council committee has imposed sanctions on a Congolese militia leader allegedly implicated in a highly publicized mass rape case last year, the committee said in a statement on Tuesday.
Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, 35, is commander-in-chief of the political wing of the Mai Mai Sheka, one of several armed groups active in the lawless east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He reportedly is running for parliament in the country's current elections.
The Congo sanctions committee statement said Sheka's group had carried out attacks on mines in the mineral-rich region and had also committed "serious violations of international law involving the targeting of children," including rape.
In a joint statement, the U.N. missions of the United States, Britain and France called on the Kinshasa government to carry out an existing arrest warrant for Sheka.
The adding of Sheka to the committee's sanctions list means he is subject to a worldwide travel ban and asset freeze. Twenty-five other individuals and six firms and organizations are already on the list for activities related to Congo's long-running factional warfare and illicit trade in metals.
The Security Council on Tuesday renewed for another year its sanctions on Congo, which also include a ban on arms supplies to non-governmental forces.
More than 5 million people are thought to have died in a 1998-2003 civil war in the vast African country. While the war is officially considered over, militias are still active and violence continues, especially in the east.
The committee statement said Sheka had planned and ordered a series of attacks in the Walikale area in July and August 2010 to punish local people accused of collaborating with Congolese government forces.
"Children were raped and were abducted, subjected to forced labor and subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," it said, adding that the Mai Mai Sheka "forcibly recruits boys and holds children in their ranks from recruitment drives."
AT LARGE
A U.N. report issued in July of this year said at least 387 civilians - mainly women but also including girls, boys and men - were raped a year earlier in 13 villages in Walikale. It said Mai Mai Sheka was one of three armed groups responsible and that Sheka himself was one of those in command.
New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a Nov. 2 statement demanding Sheka's arrest, called it "one of the largest documented cases of mass rape in eastern Congo in recent years."
Last week, Congo's army said Sheka had turned himself in for his own protection following violent clashes with another rebel group. But media reports since then have said he is again at large and campaigning in the election.
Human Rights Watch said in its statement that Congolese judicial officials backed by U.N. peacekeepers had attempted to arrest Sheka in July in the eastern city of Goma, but he had escaped after allegedly being tipped off by Congolese army personnel.
His campaigning for office despite a warrant for his arrest "demonstrates the Congolese government's failure to act against those most responsible for sexual violence and other mass atrocities," the group's Africa researcher Anneke Van Woudenberg said. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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