Rwandan genocide suspect arrested

A Rwandan genocide suspect, known as Jean-Baptiste Gatete, has been arrested in the Republic of Congo, a spokesman for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Kingsley Moghalu, told IRIN on Thursday. Gatete - whose real name is Jean Nsengiyumva - was indicted by the tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, for genocide and crimes against humanity, committed in 1994. As the former mayor of Murambi commune, he allegedly orchestrated the killings that took place in the southeastern prefecture of Kibungo. He was reportedly arrested on Wednesday in the small village of Ngombe, north of the RoC capital Brazzaville. According to the AP news agency, local authorities said he taught at a local college and was a leader of the local Rwandan community in exile. He had been living in RoC since 1996. Moghalu declined to comment on either the location or circumstances of his arrest until a "more appropriate" time. Gatete was one of eight Rwandans believed to have taken refuge in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the Rwandan genocide. In June, US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper, told reporters in Nairobi that this group constituted the leadership of the Hutu extremist Armee de liberation du Rwanda (ALIR).