08.03.10 - KENYA/KABUGA - KENYA SECURITY FORCES RENEW EFFORTS TO ARREST KABUGA

Arusha, March 08, 2010 (FH) - Kenyan security forces are said to have stepped up efforts to track-down most wanted Rwanda genocide fugitive, Felician Kabuga, who is alleged to have financed the 1994 killings. According to UN estimates, the 100-day bloodbath claimed lives of about 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

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The renewed efforts come just a month after the US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Stephen Rapp, warned Kenyan authorities in Nairobi that they must co-operate to arrest the wealthy businessman or may face UN sanctions when the global body starts its session in June.

According to Kenya's Daily Nation, the efforts are further boosted with assistance of international investigators.

The American diplomat on February 9 reiterated to Hirondelle Agency in Arusha, where he had meetings with top officials of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda including ICTR President Judge Dennis Byron and the Prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow, that Kabuga was still hiding in Kenya.

"Kabuga is still in Kenya. We have information about his presence in Kenya," Rapp stressed.

The ICTR Prosecutor has also maintained that all intelligence reports point to presence of Kabuga in the East African country.

Kabuga is the most wanted of 11 genocide suspects sought by the ICTR, with a $5 million bounty on his head. However, Kenyan government has repeatedly denied claims that Kabuga is in Kenya.

Kabuga, 75, was expelled from Switzerland in 1994, and spent some time in DR Congo before seeking refuge in Kenya, where he has dodged several attempts to arrest him.

In 1998, an ICTR team raided a Nairobi rented house and found a note indicating that the fugitive, who escaped arrest, had been tipped off by police.

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© Hirondelle News Agency