FORMER RWANDAN MILITARY BOSS ARRESTED IN BELGIUM

Arusha, January 31, 2000 (FH) - Former top Rwandan military official Augustin Ndindiliyimana has been arrested in Belgium at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). ICTR Chief of Prosecutions Mohamed Othman told Hirondelle that the suspect had been arrested at the weekend, after the ICTR issued an arrest warrant for him.

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Ndindiliyimana is wanted on genocide charges. Ndindiliyimana was chief of staff of the Rwandan military police ("gendarmerie nationale") during the 1994 genocide, in which up to one million ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus died. He fled to ex-Zaire shortly after the genocide, and thence to Belgium where he was granted refugee status. Othman told Hirondelle that the ICTR Registry was in contact with the Belgian authorities to organize the suspect's transfer to the Tribunal prison in Arusha, Tanzania. BN/JC/FH (ND%0131e)