/ 29 March 1999

RWANDAN GENOCIDE SUSPECT FREED

THE United Nations Rwandan war crimes tribunal on Monday freed an ex-army officer accused of killing Rwanda’s prime minister in 1994 and currently wanted for trial in Belgium on murder charges. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, sitting in Arusha Tanzania, rejected a demand that Major Bernard Ntuyahaga, who is charged with the murder of premier Agatha Uwilingiyimana and 10 Belgian UN peacekeepers with her, be maintained in custody. The tribunal on March 18 granted a prosecution request that it drop the case of Ntuyahaga, in order to enable him to be tried in Belgium. The UN court had said it had no power to order his extradition. Then on Friday, Ntuyahaga asked the court to suspend his release and filed an appeal for a total acquittal, but the court decided he should be freed. Law professor Eric David, who represented the Brussels government at the UN court, said that Tanzanian authorities are “open” to the possibility of arresting Ntuyahaga and extraditing him to Belgium.