Congo Extradites Key Suspect in Rwanda Genocide

March 21, 2016

Top level Rwandan genocide suspect Ladislas Ntaganzwa, center, is escorted by security upon his arrival at the airport of Kigali, March 20, 2016.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is extraditing one of the most wanted suspects in the Rwandan genocide to face charges for his crimes.

Ladislas Ntaganzwa was arrested in eastern Congo last year and was transferred into U.N. custody early Sunday before being sent to the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

Ntaganzwa is expected to be tried on nine counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations the Geneva conventions.

He served as mayor of the Nyakizu commune in Butare prefecture where he helped establish paramilitary forces bent on committing genocide. He and his forces are accused of organizing the massacre of some 20,000 ethnic Tutsis over a four-day period.

Captured in December

Congolese authorities said Ntaganzwa was arrested in Rushihe in December after a military operation dismantled the local headquarters of his rebel group, known by its French acronym, the FDLR.

He was initially wanted for trial by the Tanzania-based U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, but the case was transferred to Rwanda.

Other top fugitives at large include Felicien Kabuga, the alleged chief financier of the genocide; Protais Mpiranya, the former commandant of the notorious Presidential Guards; and former Defense Minister Augustin Bizimana.

An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed in the 1994 genocide.

*VOA