Warrant out for Rwandan ex-PM

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Rwanda has confirmed delivery of a warrant for the arrest of ex-Prime Minister Pierre Rwigema to the United States

The country's chief prosecutor, Gerald Gahima, told CNN that Rwigema was suspected of involvement in organising the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

He said the investigations into Rwigema, who became Prime Minister after the genocide, had been going on for about four years.

Rwigema's name is to be added to the Rwandan's list of "Category One" suspects it accuses of leading roles in the 1994 genocide.

During the genocide, about 830,000 Rwandans, both minority Tutsis and majority Hutus with moderate political views, were killed by Hutu extremists.

Gahima said Rwanda had issued an arrest warrant for Rwigema, now believed to be living in the Chicago area of the U.S., and would be submitting a formal extradition request to the U.S.

The Rwandan government believes the U.S. could try Rwigema even if Rwanda had no extradition treaty with it.

Alternatively, the governments says Rwigema could be transferred either to Rwanda or to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which sits in Tanzania.

Gahima said they had evidence that Rwigema, at the time a manager of a government-controlled company, belonged to a "Crisis Committee" during the genocide.

Such committees, Gahima said, were instrumental in organising the killings. Gahima said Rwigema's name had been mentioned as far back as 1997 in a trial by people who said they had been his accomplices.

When Rwigema later became Prime Minister, witnesses were more fearful of coming forward, said Gahima.

There were people in Rwandan prisons now, he said, who claimed Rwigema had distributed weapons to them during the genocide.

Gahima also said that Rwigema organised the setting-up of roadblocks in his area, the purpose of which were to hunt down Tutsis, and was sometimes seen at them.

A Hutu, Rwigema was born in 1954, and was made Prime Minister of Rwanda by the Tutsi-dominated government which took power at the end of the genocide.

He resigned in January 2000, leaving Rwanda for Germany and then the U.S., where he is said to have applied for political asylum, claiming persecution by the Rwandan government.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Rwanda pledge on genocide suspects
April 10, 2001

Embassy of Rwanda, Washington, D.C.

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