Genocide: Ex-Rwandan MP held
2007-09-20 11:58
Berlin - German police arrested a former Rwandan minister wanted by the International Tribunal on genocide charges related to the 1994 conflict in the African state, said the Federal Crime Office on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda confirmed that Augustin Ngirabatware was accused of having presided over the Rwandan genocide and inciting the mass murder of the Tutsi minority.
Spokesperson Roland Amoussouga said: "Mr Ngirabatware is accused of having committed conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide or alternatively complicity in genocide, public incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity" among other offences. He added that he was one of 16 fugitives sought by the tribunal.
German police arrested Ngirabatware on Monday in Frankfurt, where he had been hiding at various apartments and hotels.
500 000 Rwandans killed
An international warrant had been issued for Ngirabatware's arrest in 2001, and in July the German Federal Crime Police Office started to track his whereabouts.
It was not clear when Ngirabatware would be transferred to the Criminal Court, but extradition proceedings had been started, Dietmar Mueller, said a spokesperson for the Federal Crime Office.
Among other crimes, Ngirabatware was accused of having provided arms for civilians and Hutu militia during the Rwandan genocide. He allegedly founded a radio station that specifically called for mass killings of the Tutsi.
Rwanda's genocide began hours after a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was mysteriously shot down as it approached the capital, Kigali, on April 06 1994.
About 500 000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were massacred in 100 days of frenzied killing led by radical Hutus. The killing ended after Tutsi-led rebels under current President Paul Kagame defeated the Hutu extremists in July 1994.
- AP