ZIMBABWEAN police have issued an arrest warrant for Rwandan genocide suspect Propais Mpiranya, reports said.
Stung by criticism by prosecutors for a special United Nations court that it was harbouring one of the world’s most wanted mass murderers, Zimbabwe appears to have caved in to pressure.
Constable Innocent Chinembiri from the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s public relations department told the ‘Mhosva Hairobi/Lidla Umnikazi’ programme on state-run Radio Zimbabwe that a special CID taskforce was trying to track down Mpiranya.
"Mpiranya anonzi akapara mhosva iya inonzi pachirungu genocide (Mpiranya is accused of committing a crime called genocide),” Constable Chinembiri is reported by the Financial Gazette newspaper as telling the radio programme.
Constable Chinembiri named three CID detectives identified only as Maida, Muzenago and Chiremba as leading the manhunt for Mpiranya who has a US$5 million bounty over his head.
“Anyone with information on Mpiranya should immediately contact the Criminal Investigations Department’s homicide section or their nearest police station,” he added.
Defence Minister Emerson Mnangagwa told parliament in July that Mpiranya had claimed asylum in the country, but he did not say whether this had been granted.
A special UN court is trying individuals responsible for the 1994 genocide in Tanzania.
Major Protais Mpiranya was the commander of the presidential guard for the former Rwandan leader Juvenal Habyarimana, whose plane was shot down above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994, – the trigger for the slaughter that followed.
Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans – mainly Tutsis – were killed in the space of 100 days in revenge killings for the President’s assassination by his Hutu supporters.
Among Mpiranya's crimes are allegations that at the start of the genocide he "tracked down, arrested, sexually assaulted and killed" Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyi-mana.
The presidential guards, under Mpiranya’s command, are also accused of taking into custody and killing 10 Belgian peacekeepers on United Nations duty who had been guarding the Prime Minister’s house.
He has been charged in absentia with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Claims that Mpiranya is hiding in Zimbabwe were first made by the Belgian government last year, and pressure was cranked up in May when the tribunal's chief prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow accused Zimbabwe of providing sanctuary to a war criminal.
Chinembiri said Mpiranya was using several aliases including James Kakule and Patrick Sambo.
The United States government has put a US$5 million bounty on his head. Under its Rewards for Justice programme, the US says the cash prize will be claimed by anyone who can “furnish information leading to the arrest or conviction, in any country, of Mpiranya”.
Source: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-5864-Zim%20warrant%20for%20Rwanda%20war%20criminal/news.aspx
