Fulgence Kayishema (top row R) is seen on a wanted poster on the wall at the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit office, in Gishushu, in Kigali on 25 May. Photo: AFP / Mariam Kone
A Rwandan man accused of ordering the killing of 2000 people during the country's 1994 genocide has been arrested in South Africa.
Former police officer Fulgence Kayishema's alleged victims included children and elderly people from the Tutsi ethnic group who were taking refuge in a Catholic church.
His arrest was confirmed by the UN war crimes tribunal and South African police.
He had been on the run since 2001, when the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) indicted him for genocide over his role in the destruction of the church, in Rwanda's Kibuye prefecture.
"His arrest ensures that he will finally face justice for his alleged crimes," said Serge Brammertz, prosecutor at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), which has replaced the ICTR, which was wound up in 2008.
Brammertz said the investigation that led to Kayishema's arrest spanned multiple countries in Africa and beyond, and was made possible through the support of South African authorities.
An elite South African police unit known as the Hawks said its officers arrested Kayishema, who was living under a false name at a grape farm in Western Cape province, on Wednesday.
Kayishema will stay in custody and appear in a magistrate's court pending his extradition to Rwanda, the unit said in a statement.
A spokesperson for UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the arrest sent a powerful message to those who committed crimes like Kayishema's.
"Ending impunity is essential for peace, security and justice," Stéphane Dujarric said.
In her first comment on the arrest, Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo tweeted: "Finally."
'Long list' of fugitives still on the run
An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates were killed during the Rwandan genocide.
The killings were orchestrated by an extremist Hutu regime and carried out by local officials and ordinary citizens in the rigidly hierarchical society.
"Seeing these people arrested brings healing to the survivors," said Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of Ibuka, an umbrella group representing survivors.
Kayishema had been on the US State Department's wanted list, with a USD$5 million (NZD$8.2m) reward offered for his arrest.
In May 2020, a mastermind of the genocide, Felicien Kabuga, was arrested in France after 26 years on the run.
Kayishema's arrest meant there were now only three fugitives indicted by the international tribunal whose whereabouts remain unknown.
But Makolo said the Rwandan government believed more suspects were still yet to be caught.
"Nearly 30 years later, we have a long list of Rwandan genocide fugitives still at large in several countries around the world," she said.
"We will continue to work with partner states and institutions to ensure that they are held to account."
- Reuters/ABC