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Top Suspect in Rwandan Genocide Arrested


Ugandan police have announced the arrest of a pastor accused of organizing mass killings in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Officials say Jean-Bosco Uwinkindi was detained on Wednesday after entering Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Uwinkindi was one of 11 suspects wanted by the U.N.'s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which has been prosecuting organizers of the Rwandan genocide in Arusha, Tanzania.

Uwinkindi was expected to be transferred to the tribunal soon.

The international court's indictment of Uwinkindi relates a chilling sequence of alleged crimes by the pastor.

Near the start of Rwanda's 1994 genocide, Uwinkindi allegedly gathered ethnic Hutus at his church, where he ordered them to kill nearby ethnic Tutsis.

During the height of the genocide, Uwinkindi allegedly gave shelter to Tutsi women and children at his church, only to have them killed later.

Charges against Uwikindi include genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity.

Uwikindi is the second suspect in the Rwandan genocide to be arrested in Uganda in less than a year. Authorities captured Idelphonse Nizeyimana there last October.

During the Rwandan genocide, Hutu extremists killed an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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