RWANDA TRIBUNAL MAKES TWO MORE ARRESTS IN EUROPE

Arusha, February 15, 2000 (FH) - Two more Rwandan genocide suspects have been arrested in Europe at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the independent, electronic newspaper Ubutabera reported on Tuesday . One was arrested in France and one in Denmark.

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Major François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, formerly a senior Rwandan army commander, was arrested on Tuesday morning in the southwestern French town of Montauban. He was commander of the reconnaissance battalion, an elite unit of the Rwandan army. Ubutabera says Nzuwonemeye is "very probably" one of the people indicted jointly with former gendarmerie (military police) boss Augustin Ndindiliyimana who was arrested in Belgium on January 28th. Prosecutors said recently they planned to try Ndindiliyimana with "other former military suspects that we are still looking for". The other arrest is also a former Rwandan army officer, Innocent Sagahutu. He was arrested on Tuesday morning in the Danish capital Copenhagen. This continues a recent wave of ICTR arrests in Europe, starting with that of former Rwandan minister of higher education Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda in France on November 26th. Ndindiliyimana was then arrested in Belgium, and Tharcisse Muvunyi in Britain on February 5th. Muvunyi was a regional army commander for the southern Rwandan region of Butare. Sources at the ICTR put these recent successes down to an aggressive arrests policy by new Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, and better cooperation by some European governments. The latest arrests in France and Britain are the first at the request of the ICTR. JC/FH (AR%0215e)