Genocide suspect in court

2009-11-08 17:14

Ottowa - After a six-year probe spanning Africa and North America, a 37-year-old Rwandan immigrant was presented to a judge here on Saturday on suspicion of committing acts of genocide, officials said.

Jacques Mungwarere was arrested on Friday by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) at the tail-end of an investigation that led authorities from Rwanda - site of the brutal 1994 genocide - to the US and Canada.

"Mungwarere is suspected of having committed acts of genocide in the region of Kibuye in western Rwanda," Sergeant Marc Menard confirmed to AFP.

According to the UN, some 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in the 1994 genocide.

A private citizen tipped off police to Mungwarere's presence in the country, said the RCMP.

'Not welcome in Canada'

"Persons who commit such heinous crimes are not welcome to Canada," said Ron Charlebois, who heads the RCMP's War Crimes division.

"We will do everything within our ability, with the resources allocated to us, to ensure that such persons do not enjoy impunity here," he added.

Mungwarere is the second person to be accused of war crimes in Canada, under the "universal jurisdiction" mandate of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, which came into law in October 2000.

Late last month Rwandan militia leader Desire Munyaneza, 42, was found guilty of crimes against humanity, in Canada's first war crimes trial.

He was sentenced on October 29 to life in prison after being found guilty earlier this year of seven counts of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity for the rape, murder and torture of dozens of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in southern Rwanda from April to July 1994.

He received the maximum penalty under Canadian law and will not be eligible for parole until having served 25 years in prison.

The court heard Munyaneza, the son of a wealthy Hutu beer distributor, had set up and manned roadblocks in southern Rwanda during the genocide to select Tutsis and moderate Hutu as victims based on their ethnicity or allegiances.

- SAPA