MIKA MUHIMANA ARRESTED IN TANZANIA

Arusha, November 9th, '99 (FH) - Genocide suspect Mikaeli Muhimana (alias Mika), formerly a councillor in a sector of Gishyita Comune (Kibuye prefecture, western Rwanda), was arrested in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on Monday, according to a press release issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Muhimana has been on the ICTR wanted list since November 1995 when his name appeared on the first indictment issued by the tribunal along with seven other suspects.

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Two of these - the former prefect of Kibuye Clément Kayishema and the businessman Obed Ruzindana - have already been found guilty of genocide by the UN tribunal. A third suspect, the former mayor of Mabanza Ignace Bagilishema, is currently standing trial. The remaining four are still on the run. These include two former mayors of Gishyita, Charles Sikubwabo, and Gisovu, Aloys Ndimbati, a town councillor in Gisovu Commune Vincent Rutaganira and a restaurant manager, Ryandikayo [no first name given]. Mika Muhimana is charged, in particular, with having conspired to kill Tutsis in the Kibuye prefecture and of participating in attacks carried out in the Bisesero region where thousands of predominantly Tutsi men, women and children sought refuge during April and June 1994. The prosecution alleges that, at various times, Muhimana and his co-accused brought to the area of Bisesero armed members of the Gendarmerie Nationale, communal police, interahamwe militias and civilians and directed them to attack the people seeking refuge there. The attackers apparently used guns, grenades, machetes, spears, cudgels and other weapons to kill the Tutsis. The accused, 49, worked as a tradesman in Gishyita until 1988. During that year he was elected town councillor and remained in his post until July 1994. He then fled to former Zaire when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) took power in Kigali. Immediately after his arrest Mika Muhimana was transferred to the United Nations detention centre in Arusha. CR/AT/PHD/FH (MH§1109A )