Rwandan fugitive facing genocide charges arrested in Uganda, police spokeswoman says

Rwandan fugitive facing genocide charges arrested

KAMPALA, Uganda — A Rwandan pastor facing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity during Rwanda’s 100-day slaughter has been arrested in Uganda 16 years later, a police spokeswoman said Friday.

Ugandan police handed Jean-Bosco Uwinkindi to Interpol, and he has been taken to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania where he will face trial, said Judith Nabakooba, a Ugandan police spokeswoman.

Uwinkindi is accused of inciting and directing dozens of attackers to kill Tutsis during the 100-day genocide that began in April 1994. At least 500,000 members of the Tutsi ethnic minority and moderates from the Hutu majority were slaughtered during the Rwandan genocide.

Survivors of the attacks were brought to Uwinkindi’s church to be killed, according to the indictment against him at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. About 2,000 bodies were found near the church when Uwinkindi fled Rwanda in July 1994, it said.

There was a $5 million reward for Uwinkindi’s arrest. Nabakooba said that he was arrested Wednesday following a tip from government intelligence.

Criminal Investigations Department chief Edward Ochom, however, said that the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda had been trailing Uwinkindi for a long time. He said it was tribunal officials who informed Uganda when the Rwandan pastor entered the country on Sunday from neighboring Congo where he had been living.

William Ndega, an Ugandan immigration officer at the border, said Uwinkindi entered the country using an alias, Jean Insitu.

John Musinguzi, a resident of Isingiro district where Uwinkindi was arrested, said the cleric was looking for land to buy before his arrest.

Uwinkindi, a Pentecostal pastor, was one of nearly a dozen suspects who remain at large 16 years after the genocide.