CAPE TOWN: One of the most wanted suspects in Rwanda's genocide, a man suspected of orchestrating the killing of more than 2,000 people, has been arrested in South Africa after 22 years on the run, a special tribunal set up by the United Nations said Thursday.
"Yesterday afternoon, Fulgence Kayishema -– one of the world’s most wanted genocide fugitives -– was arrested in Paarl, South Africa in a joint operation," the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT) said in a statement.
He was captured in a joint operation by the tribunal's fugitive tracking team and South African authorities, the tribunal said.
#BREAKING One of the last fugitives sought over Rwanda genocide held in S. Africa: UN court pic.twitter.com/eaMpxMZD85
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 25, 2023More than 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda's genocide, which took place over the course of three months in 1994 when ethnic Hutus turned on the minority Tutsis, slaughtering them and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them.
Kayishema was indicted by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2001 and charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity for killings and other crimes.
He and others allegedly murdered more than 2,000 Tutsi men, women and children who had taken refuge in a Catholic church in Nyange in Kivumu district.
"Kayishema directly participated in the planning and execution of this massacre, including by procuring and distributing petrol to burn down the church with the refugees inside," the statement said.
"When this failed, Kayishema and others used a bulldozer to collapse the church, burying and killing the refugees inside.
"Kayishema and others then supervised the transfer of corpses from the church grounds into mass graves."
"Fulgence Kayishema was a fugitive for more than 20 years. His arrest ensures that he will finally face justice for his alleged crimes," IRMCT chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in a statement.
