First Rwanda genocide suspect arrested in DR of Congo, UN tribunal says

A former county official during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda has been arrested in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and transferred to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the court announced today.

Col. Tharcisse Renzaho, a former prefect of Kigali-ville, was arrested yesterday in Kinshasa pursuant to the Tribunal’s rules of evidence and transferred to the court’s detention facility in Arusha, Tanzania.

ICTR Registrar Adama Dieng, who was in Kinshasa, welcomed the support of the Congolese authorities in carrying out the arrest and praised the commitment of President Joseph Kabila to help the Tribunal identify and arrest other suspects who are still at large.

The arrest of Colonel Renzaho was the first of its kind to be carried out in the DRC and was the third arrest since the announcement of the United States Government’s Rewards for Justice campaign, which identified nine high-profile suspects.