Rwandan Genocide Fugitive Appears In South African Court

Former Rwandan policeman Fulgence Kayishema, accused of taking part in the killing of 2,000 people in the 1994 genocide, appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Friday.

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A Fugitive Wanted for Rwandan Genocide is Arrested

One of the most wanted fugitives, 62, was arrested two days ago in South Africa after more than two decades on the run. The charges against him include "genocide" and conspiracy to commit genocide "in relation to the killing of more than 2,000 people in Rwanda in 1994," according to prosecutor Nathan Adriaanse. 

Kayishema will be held in Cape Town's Pollsmoor Prison pending his possible extradition to Rwanda, Magistrate Ronel Oliver said. The case was adjourned to June 2.

According to the indictment, he faces five charges in South Africa, two of them for fraud. The fraud charges relate to asylum and refugee applications he filed in South Africa, in which the National Prosecuting Authority alleges he gave his nationality as Burundian and used a false name.

The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) indicted Kayishema in 2001 for direct involvement in the planning and execution of the massacre of refugees hiding in Nyange Catholic Church in Kivumu on April 15, 1994. 

"Kayishema was directly involved in the planning and execution of this massacre, including procuring and distributing gasoline to burn the church with the refugees inside," the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT) said Thursday.

"When this failed, Kayishema and others used a bulldozer to demolish the church, burying and killing the refugees inside," the MICT added in announcing his arrest.

More than 800,000 Rwandans, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were killed during 100 days of violence by forces and vigilantes of an extremist Hutu regime. Thousands of moderate Hutus also were killed in the massacre, considered one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.