By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
KINSHASA, DR Congo – Gregoire Ndahimana, the man accused of planning a massacre that killed at least 2,000 Rwandan Tutsis during the 1994 genocide, was arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said a government official.
(Source:About.com)
He has been hiding for 15 years.
Congolese Information Minister Lambert Mende said, “He was discovered by our units operating in North Kivu … He was hiding among the FDLR.”
Ndahimana was not arrested while fighting, however, but was caught by surprise during a civilian operation. A UN-backed operation to stamp out Hutu rebel group FDLR (the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) led Congolese soldiers into North Kivu on Sunday when they discovered him.
“He was captured while he was coming to look for some food within the local population,” said national army spokesman Olivier Hamuli.
During the 1994 genocide Ndahimana was a local administrator in the Rwandan town of Kivumu. He was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for the bulldozing of a local church where at least 2,000 Tutsis were being held.
The ICTR, based in Arusha, Tanzania, sought Ndahimana’s arrest for genocide or complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity for extermination. According to Mende, “(Ndahimana) is now in the hands of the military’s operational authorities awaiting his transfer to Arusha.”
Rwandan and Congolese officials call this one of the “largest achievements in military operations against the Hutu rebels to date.”
“He’s one of the big ones,” said Rwanda’s justice minister Tharcisse Karugarama, adding that the arrest was the first of its kind in recent time. “But others are still out there.”
Twelve other ICTR indictees remain at large. The UN Security Council has given the court until the end of 2010 to complete its prosecutions, an extension from the original completion date of 2008.
For more information, please see:
BBC – Genocide Suspect Found in Congo – 12 August 2009
Daily Nation – Top Rwanda Genocide Suspect Captured in Congo – 12 August 2009
NY Times – Congo Arrests Rwandan Genocide Suspect – 12 August 2009
Reuters – Congo Arrests Rwandan Genocide Suspect – 12 August 2009
