Another genocide suspect transferred to ICTR detention facility

A former Rwandan military officer, wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal (ICTR) for Rwanda for his role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, was transferred on Wednesday from the Republic of Congo to the tribunal's headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.

The tribunal reported on Thursday that the former commander of the Ngoma military camp, Idephonse Hategekimana, was being held at the UN Detention Facility in Arusha, pending trial. He faces five counts of genocide, complicity in genocide, incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity for rape and other inhumane acts.

According to the tribunal, Hategekimana, allegedly "ordered, transported, and led soldiers and militiamen to carry out, among others, attacks against Tutsi civilians, including street-by-street killings in the Muslim quarters of Ngoma and attacks at a convent and at the Groupe Scolaire where orphans were gathered".

Hategikimana was arrested in Brazzaville on 16 February by authorities in the ROC who were acting on a warrant issued by the tribunal two weeks earlier.

He is the third to be arrested out of nine genocide suspects named by the government of the United States in its 'Rewards for Justice Programme', the tribunal said. The US programme supports the tribunal's efforts to arrest high-ranking fugitives from justice. Alleged genocide mastermind, Felicien Kabuga, thought to be hiding in Kenya, tops the US list of the most wanted suspects.

The tribunal reported that during the genocide, Hategikimana allegedly watched an attack while preventing his soldiers from intervening and conducted meetings to incite massacres. He is also accused of deploying soldiers to stop escaping Tutsi civilians and bring them to the camp for slaughter.