A fugitive suspect in Rwanda's 1994 genocide with a $5m reward on his head has been arrested in Uganda.
Suspect Jean-Bosco Uwinkindi, accused of helping to orchestrate the mass killings, was arrested after entering Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
‘The people in Arusha were tracking him. As soon as he crossed into Uganda, which was on 26th or 27th (June), they informed us. We picked him up on Wednesday in Mbarara,’ said Edward Ochom, head of Uganda's Criminal Investigation Directorate.
Mr Uwinkindi was indicted by the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity in 2001.
Until his arrest in western Uganda, he was among 11 suspects still at large and wanted by the ICTR, based in Tanzania's northern town of Arusha.
Elly Womanya, deputy director of Interpol's Kampala office, said that Uwinkindi would be transferred to the ICTR as soon as possible.
According to a copy of his indictment, Mr Uwinkindi, aged 59, was a pastor at Pentecostal Church near Kigali during the genocide, and allegedly collaborated with an extremist political organisation that professed hatred for the Tutsi ethnic group.
In early April 1994, Mr Uwinkindi is accused of helping organise and instruct groups of Hutus to kill Tutsis, and after allowing Tutsi women and children to seek refuge in his church, he ordered their execution, according to the indictment.
The US State Department, through its Rewards for Justice Programme, had previously offered a $5m reward for information leading to Mr Uwinkindi's arrest.
Uganda's independent Daily Monitor newspaper reported today that Mr Uwinkindi entered the country using the alias Jean Inshitu and was attempting to buy land and settle under that assumed name.
