Rwandan genocide suspect caught in Uganda

Last Updated: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 | 2:45 PM ET

CBC News

Arrested this week in Uganda for his alleged involvment in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Idelphonse Nizeyimana is pictured here in this undated photo. (U.S. Department of State/Associated Press)

A former Rwandan intelligence chief wanted for genocide crimes has been arrested in Uganda.

Interpol agents detained Indelphonse Nizeyimana on Monday in Kampala after he entered Uganda last week from Congo with false identity documents. He was heading to Nairobi, Kenya, at the time.

Nizeyimana will be flown to Arusha,Tanzania, where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sits.

"The arrest of Nizeyimana is a credit to Uganda's law enforcement officers and agencies ,and clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of international co-operation," said Interpol's Jean-Michel Louboutin.

"It shows that even if fugitives go on the run for years, the international law enforcement community will keep on searching for them until they are located and arrested, no matter how long it takes," said Louboutin, Interpol's executive director of police services.

One of the most wanted suspects in the Rwandan genocide, Nizeyimana is a former Rwandan army captain and the former head of intelligence and military operations in that country.

In 1994, about 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by militias during the 100-day genocide in Rwanda.

An indictment prepared by the tribunal in 2000, alleges Nizeyimana formed secret units of soldiers sent to execute Rosalie Gicanda, the queen of Rwanda. Taken from her home and shot in April 1994, in the earliest days of the Rwandan genocide, Gicanda was a symbolic figure to Tutsis.

with files from The Associated Press

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