The text, which does not specify the date of the arrest, stresses that the defendant was arrested thanks to the co-operation between Interpol, the office of the prosecutor of the ICTR and the French justice and interior ministries.
Issued on 13 June 2005, the indictment against Ntawukuriryayo was only made public in April. The arrest warrant targeting this former administrative official is dated 21 September 2006.
Sub-prefect of Gisagara, in the prefecture of Butare (southern Rwanda), in 1994, he is charged with genocide, complicity to genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide. He was responsible for an area with a large Tutsi population and where the massacres were particularly brutal, it was learned from a qualified source.
"Between 21 and 25 April 1994, Dominique Ntawukuriryayo gathered soldiers and gendarmes in Butare and transferred them to the Kabuye hill (in his sub-prefecture) to kill Tutsis who were there", the indictment indicates. "During the same period, he also collected in Butare ammunition which was used by the attackers to kill Tutsis on the Kibuye hill", also alleges the prosecutor.
"Towards the end of May 1994, in the Muyaga commune, the defendant Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, addressing himself to the local population in front of the house of the assistant of the burgomaster, called for the search and death of all Tutsis before the arrival of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF, former Tutsi rebellion currently in power) in Muyaga", the text adds.
In a correspondence addressed to the ICTR, France, required to arrest Ntawukuriryayo, had answered that the defendant was not on its territory. Rwanda had, in spite of that, confirmed the presence of Ntawukuriryayo on French soil.
The arrest takes place as a delegation of the ICTR, including the chief of prosecutions, Silvana Arbia (Italy), is on mission in France.
Fourteen others accused are still wanted by this tribunal which must finish its first instance trials by the end of next year.
ER/PB
© Hirondelle News Agency