Monday, July 5, 2010

Rwanda: Another Genocide Suspect Held

The Police on Wednesday arrested a Rwandan pastor who has been on the wanted list of perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.


Jean Nshuti Uwinkindi's luck run out on Wednesday afternoon as he was travelling to Isingiro from Mbarara. He was with his wife and child.

Sources yesterday said the suspect was shortly after arrest taken to the south-western head offices in Mbarara where he was transferred to Kampala amid tight security.

Arrangements are being made to move the suspect to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which sits in Arusha.

Police sources said Uwinkindi has a $5m bounty on his head.

Uwinkindi's wife and child were not brought to Kampala. "We didn't get information whether they were taken back to Rwanda or not," the source added.

More than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in three months under an organised Hutu extremist policy to eradicate them.

Uwinkindi was the pastor of the Pentecostal Church in Kanzenze, Kigali at the time.

According to the indictment, prior to and during the genocide, he was a collaborator of the extremist MRND (Mouvement Républicain National Pour La Démocratie et le Développement) party and was known for his hatred for Tutsis.

It is alleged that he led a group of killers to look for and exterminate Tutsi civilians, and on numerous occasions planned, instigated, ordered and committed acts of genocide against Tutsis.
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The prosecution further alleged that after Uwinkindi fled from Rwanda in July 1994, "approximately 2,000 corpses" were found near his former church.

Uwinkindi is facing three counts of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity.

He reportedly claimed that he was taking his wife to Kampala and thereafter he planned to hand himself over to the ICTR.

The deputy Criminal Investigations Department chief, Moses Sakira, and Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba declined to discuss the matter.

Another genocide suspect Idelphonse Nizeyimana, alias the 'Butcher of Butare,' a former Rwandan army intelligence officer, was last year arrested in Uganda and handed over to the ICTR.

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