Former minister arrested in Belgium

Meanwhile, Rwanda’s former finance minister, Emmanuel Ndabahizi was arrested on Thursday by Belgian police in Verviers, eastern Belgium, Belgian RTBF radio reported. The arrest was based on an international arrest warrant issued by the Arusha-based ICTR. He will have to answer to charges of genocide, incitement to genocide and crimes against humanity. Ndabahizi was a discreet and little-known man, the radio said. He was finance minister in the provisional government formed in Kigali on 8 April, 1994, just after the beginning of the genocide and the massacres in Rwanda, a government that fled to Congo in July of the same year. He was a member of the ultra-Hutu wing of his party. According to the radio, ICTR seeks to call in for questioning all members of the provisional government over their political responsibility for the genocide. The procedure that resulted in Thursday’s arrest of the Ndabahizi, is regulated by a law dating back to 22 March, 1996, which organises the cooperation between the Belgian justice system and the international tribunals. Ndabahizi will be transferred to the Arusha Tribunal in the next three months, but in the meantime, he will remain in custody in Belgium, the report added.