/ 16 July 2001

THREE RWANDANS CHARGED WITH GENOCIDE

THREE former Rwandan officials were arrested in Europe on Thursday on suspicion of crimes committed during the 1994 genocide, said the chief prosecutor of the UN tribunal for Rwanda Carla del Ponte. Emmanuel Rukundo, a former chaplain in the Rwandan army, was arrested in Geneva, while Emmanuel Ndindabahizi, a former finance minister, was arrested in Brussels, she said. The third suspect, Simon Bikindi, a composer and singer and former official in the ministry of youth and sport, was seized in Leiden, Netherlands, she said. “All three are charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity,” del Ponte said. -AFP