Kampala, October 07: A Rwandan citizen suspected of being one of the orchestrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide has been arrested in Uganda, an army official said Tuesday.
Army spokesman Felix Kulayigye told DPA that Idelphonse Nizeyimana – who is wanted by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) – has been arrested and that the matter was being dealt with by the police.
The police were not able to release any information.
Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered by militias during a 100-day killing spree, which came after Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down on the evening of April 6, 1994.
Nizeyimana, who was a captain and in charge of intelligence and military matters during the genocide, is accused of setting up and controlling military units that killed thousands of Tutsis.
The ICTR indictment specifically accuses Nizeyimana of sending one of these units to kill Queen Rosalie Gicanda and ordering the kidnap of 25 refugees, mainly woman and children, from a convent. Those kidnapped were never seen again, according to the indictment.
Nizeyimana, one of 12 ICTR suspects who was still at large, is also accused of setting up roadblocks where Tutsis were butchered and ordering his men to kill students and lecturers at a university.
The ICTR, despite spending over $1 billion, has convicted only a few dozen people for their role in the genocide.
Rwanda has turned to traditional courts, known as Gacaca, to bring others to justice.
–Agencies