The New Times, Kigali Rwanda, Issue No 211, 30 April - 3 May 2001-05-31 Front Page Article

Bishop Nabbed For Genocide

By Butera Christine and Agencies

Another Rwandan Bishop, Musabyimana Samuel, formerly Bishop of the Diocese of Shyogwe in Gitarama province, was arrested in Nairobi last week by the Kenyan police on the basis of a warrant of arrest issued by the ICTR in March this year.

Musabyimana who was immediately transferred to UN detention facility in Arusha, is charged with four counts which include Genocide, conspiracy to commit Genocide and crimes against humanity. He was initially arrested by the South African authorities on immigration charges in September last year and deported to Kenya where he had escaped to.

(contd P. 2)

Ms Carla Del Ponte the Tribunal's Prosecutor expressed her satisfaction over the arrest.

Bishop Musabyimana's indictment charges are that between April and May 1994, following the ethnic conflict in the then Gitarama prefecture, he (Musabyimana) publicly stated that the situation for the Tutsi was very bad and that their end had arrived. He is also accused of having instructed his subordinates to register, and group on ethnic basis, all refugees who had fled to Shyogwe Diocese, which lists were later used to isolate Tutsi refugees who were taken to nearby sites to be killed. The Bishop is also said to have paid the militias who carried out the killings.

The count of conspiracy is based upon meetings organized or attended by Musabyimana with high level government and military officials. He is said to have regularly consorted with ministers of the interim government of Rwanda and acted as an emissary of the government abroad, to legitimize its policies at a time when those policies were known to include a plan of exterminating all Tutsi and Hutu political opposition.

A Duty Counsel will immediately be appointed by the registry of ICTR to assist Musabyimana and advise him on his rights during his detention. A date has yet to be set for his initial appearance before the tribunal.

A special assignment was done by SABC in South Africa showing how Bishop Musabyimana moved around organising and facilitating funds for genocide suspects who are at large to travel incognito To places where they are not known with fake documents got by Bishop Mutabyimana.