Foreign governments barred from interviewing genocide suspect

The lawyer defending former Rwandan health minister Casimir Bizimungu at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has said his client will not be interviewed by foreign governments until his case is over, the Internews agency reported. He said that once a suspect was under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, there could be no outside intervention. The Swedish, UK and New Zealand governments want to question Bizimungu, believed to be a leader of the extremist Hutu organisation PALIR, in connection with the abduction of three of their nationals last year. PALIR has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.