Concerted efforts by the International Police (Interpol) in collaboration with French authorities have led to the arrest of another key 1994 Rwanda Genocide suspect in France.

Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, who has been the subject of an Interpol Red Notice issued on behalf of both the Rwandan government and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) since November 2006, was this week arrested by French police in Carcassonne, southern France.

"He is wanted in connection with serious offences under the 1949 Geneva Conventions and crimes against humanity,” Interpol said in a statement on Thursday.

Born in 1942 to Mbonigaba and Gatebo in Mubuga Commune, Gikongoro Préfecture – now in the Southern Province – Ntawukuriryayo is a former sous-préfet of Gisagara sous prefecture in Butare.

According to his indictment issued by office of the ICTR prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow Ntawukuriryayo is accused of Genocide, complicity in Genocide, and direct and public incitement to commit Genocide.

Ntawukuriryayo "was responsible for killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the Tutsi racial or ethnic group, with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a racial or ethnic group,” reads part of the indictment signed on June 10, 2005.

He is accused of coordinating the massacre of up to 25,000 people in one incident.

Ntawukuriryayo has been among the remaining fifteen Genocide suspects wanted by ICTR, and on the 70th position on a Rwandan list of top Genocide fugitives which has 93 names.

Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said in the statement: "A result such as this does not come overnight and was achieved only through the close and careful co-operation between the French authorities, INTERPOL, Rwandan authorities and the ICTR.”

Ntawukuriryayo’s arrest comes a few months after delegates at Interpol’s 19th African Regional Conference in Tanzania called for all 186 National Central Bureaus (NCBs) around the world to provide whatever assistance necessary to arrest the remaining fugitives of the ICTR.

It also comes four months after the first similar incident in France in which Isaac Kamali was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Interpol said that in early October its team from the Fugitive Investigative Service (FIS) "was deployed to Rwanda to liaise with the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICTR, Interpol’s NCB in Kigali and the Rwandan judicial authorities in order to develop a common strategy in relation to the location and apprehension of Genocide suspects around the world.”

Interpol didn’t indicate exactly when Ntawukuriryayo was arrested but ICTR said in a statement that the fugitive was apprehended on October 16.

The UN court said yesterday prosecutor Jallow was yet to decide where Ntawukuriryayo should be tried from.

This is the fouth Genocide arrest in France in four months, although two suspects – Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and former provincial head Laurent Bucyibaruta – were on September 19 for the second time temporarily released.

On September 26, the French judiciary postponed to 21 November its decision on transferring the two to ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania.

In a separate but related operation, Germany authorities in collaboration with ICTR’s Office of the Prosecution’s Tracking Team on September 17 arrested Augustine Ngirabatware. Ngirabatware is due to be transferred to Arusha where his case has been earmarked for trial.

He is also the son-in-law of Felicien Kabuga, the most sought after Genocide suspect who is believed to be hiding in Kenya.

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