After 21 Years, Rwandan Genocide Fugitive Found

Interpol agents arrested a Rwandan with a $5 million bounty on his head who is among the most wanted for the 1994 genocide, officials said Thursday. Ladislas Ntaganzwa was arrested in the eastern Congo city of Goma late Monday, according to Rwandan Prosecutor General Richard Muhumuza. Ntaganzwa is among the nine most-wanted fugitives in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, which killed more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sought Ntaganzwa to answer charges related to participation in genocide and incitement to commit genocide, but closed its proceedings last week after nearly 20 years of pursuing and prosecuting genocide suspects and transferred Ntaganzwa's case to Rwanda.

Muhumuza said the country has started extradition proceedings for Ntaganzwa to stand trial in Rwanda. According to ICTR's indictment of Ntaganzwa, he is accused of substantially participating in the planning, preparation, and execution of the massacre of over 20,000 Tutsis at Cyahinda Parish from around April 14 to 18, 1994, when he was mayor of Nyakizu. On April 15, 1994, Ntaganzwa, armed with a gun, transported gendarmes in a vehicle while Hutu civilians and Burundian refugees he had incited earlier arrived on foot and surrounded Cyahinda Parish to prevent the Tutsis from escaping, the indictment says. He then gave the order for the massacre to begin, and many Tutsis were killed or harmed. Ntaganzwa is also wanted for allegedly orchestrating and leading a massacre of thousands of Tutsis elsewhere and ordering rape. (More Rwanda stories.)