Fulgence Kayishema was wanted worldwide on suspicion of genocide in Rwanda. He is said to have been involved in the killing of 2000 people in a church. After years of flight, he has now been arrested in South Africa.
A man suspected of being responsible for the genocide in Rwanda has been arrested in South Africa after more than 20 years on the run. The UN tribunal IRMCT said the Fulgence Kayishema, who was wanted worldwide, was picked up by the South African authorities and UN investigators in the town of Paarl.
2000 Tutsi refugees killed in Nyange
Kayishema is suspected of having organized the murder of around 2,000 Tutsi refugees in a church in the town of Nyange during the 1994 genocide. Kayishema was one of the most wanted suspects in the Rwandan genocide.
“His arrest will ensure that he is finally held accountable for his alleged crimes,” said Serge Brammertz, Chief Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism (IRMCT). The tribunal is the successor to the criminal courts for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
A million people killed in a few months
From April to July 1994, Hutu militias killed about a million people in Rwanda, most of them Tutu people. To this day, there is an international search for those responsible for the genocide. Kayishema was indicted by the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2001 on charges including genocide and crimes against humanity and has been wanted ever since.
According to the indictment, he had tried to burn down the church where people had taken shelter. When this failed, he and other accomplices brought down the building with a bulldozer.