BBC News

19/10/07

A man wanted in connection with Rwanda's 1994 genocide has been arrested in France, Interpol says.

Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, who was detained in the southern French town of Carcassonne, has been charged with genocide by the Rwanda tribunal.

His indictment says he co-ordinated the killing of up to 25,000 Tutsis at Kabuye Hill near Gisagara over a five-day period in April 1994.

He is the third fugitive wanted by the tribunal to be caught in France.

The other two suspects – Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Catholic priest, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, a former government official – who were detained earlier this year have yet to be transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) which sits in Tanzania.

In September, a Paris appeals court ordered their release, saying the warrants issued by the international tribunal were "invalid". The case is to be reviewed later in the year.

But Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said Mr Ntawukuriryayo's arrest served as a warning to other ICTR "fugitives".

"They may believe they have evaded justice, but this is very much not the case," he said.

Mr Ntawukuriryayo, born in 1942, was a sub-prefect in the area of Gisagara at the time of the Kabuye Hill killings.

Since 1997 the tribunal has convicted 28 ringleaders of the genocide and acquitted five people.

Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the 100-day massacre in 1994.

BBC News