One of the top remaining suspects from the 1994 Rwandan genocide has been arrested in Uganda.


Idelphonse Nizeyimana, the former deputy commander of the intelligence services, was on his way to Kenya from the Democratic Republic of Congo when he was detained in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Sunday. He was said to have been using false identity papers.

Mr Nizeyimana, a captain at the time of the genocide, is accused of having organised and carried out the slaughter of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in and around Butare, one of the worst areas during the fastest mass murder in history.

He was handed over to security personnel of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

In November 2000 the UN court issued a 22-page charge sheet against him for genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity.

Ronald Amoussouga, a spokesman for the tribunal, told The Times: “He is among the most serious of the suspects still at large.

“He is among the highest value targets we want to try. He is now in our custody and will soon be in our detention facility.

“We are delighted with the co-operation we have received from the Ugandan authorities. He was detained on Sunday and 24 hours later he was in our custody.”

At least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus who were opposed to the killings were slaughtered by Hutu militias and security forces during 100 days of slaughter, which began after the aircraft of President Habyarimana was shot down on April 6, 1994.

Mr Nizeyimana, a captain in the Ecole des Sous-Officiers (ESO), was said to have organised much of the killing around Butare in the south-east of the country. One of his victims was reportedly the revered Queen Rosalie Gicanda, one of the widows of King Mutara III, who died in 1959 before the country became a republic on independence. According to a 1999 report by Human Rights Watch soldiers under Mr Nizeyimana’s command took her out of her house and shot her in the back.

Compared to many others her death was mercifully quick. Many were hacked to death with machetes, axes and home-made weapons of wood and nails.

Mr Nizeyimana was a member of the Akazu, the elite inner circle of the deceased president, and trained and equipped the dreaded Interahamwe militia of the ruling party. The Interahamwe carried out much of the most brutal slaughter.

The tribunal’s charge stated that Mr Nizeyimana set up special killing squads and “instigated, encouraged, facilitated, or acquiesced to . . . the Interahamwe committing killings, kidnappings and the destruction of property.”

The tribunal, which is supposed to stop opening new trials at the end of 2010 and wind up completely by 2013, has a list of 11 suspects still at large. Of these only three or four are senior enough to merit going on trial at its headquarters at Arusha, in southern Tanzania. If detained the rest would most likely be handed over to Rwanda for trial there.

The detention of Mr Nizeyimana comes after a recent agreement between Rwanda and Congo to co-operate in trying to arrest former Interahamwe fighters who fled into Congo when the genocide ended and the current Tutsi-led government took power. Uganda, which has discovered huge oil reserves on its border with Congo, is keen for peace to prevail in the region.

Felicien Kabuga, a millionaire businessman who is accused of funding the genocide, is the number one remaining target. President Obama, when still a senator, infuriated Kenyan officials by saying that Mr Kabuga was hiding in Kenya where he was able to buy off corrupt officials.

The ICTR has convicted 24 suspects on genocide charges. Eight more are on appeal. Most of those convicted are serving sentences of between 15 years and life and have been transferred to prisons in Mali and Benin, which volunteered to take them.