Negotiations are currently underway between the Governments of France and Gabon over a possible extradition from Libreville to Paris and later on to Kigali of a Rwandan Genocide fugitive.

Last week Gabonese police arrested Dr. Jean Chrysostome Ndindabahizi on an Interpol Red Notice in connection with his alleged role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Rwandan prosecutors say they successfully traced the whereabouts of Dr. Ndindabahizi, who was, until his arrest, working in the Office of the President of Gabon.

There is no extradition treaty between Rwanda and Gabon, which is why the suspect could be flown to France first, and not straight to Kigali.

Ndindabahizi is charged with, among others, complicity and conspiracy to commit Genocide, public incitement to commit Genocide, committing crimes against humanity such as murder and extermination, and the creation of a criminal gang that killed people during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Witnesses say that the suspect, who was a medical doctor at Butare University Hospital, participated in meetings to prepare mass killings in 1994.

According to the National Public Prosecution which was notified about the arrest by Interpol, Ndindabahizi, disguised his identity and worked in a public hospital in Melen, a suburb of Libreville, before moving to the President’s Office.

Prosecution Spokesperson, Augustin Nkusi, had told The New Times earlier that the Prosecution was aware of Ndindabahizi’s presence in Gabon.

Nkusi said that Rwanda sent his indictment to the Gabonese Government in January, 2009.

Witness accounts indicate that on April 20, 1994, Ndindabahizi, together with Interahamwe militias and soldiers, armed with rifles, machetes, clubs and grenades, allegedly rounded up many women and children, who were hiding in sorghum fields, took them to a nearby military camp in Tumba (in former Butare), from where they were killed.

He is alleged to have , together with former Gender Minister Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, driven around in a pick-up loaded with condoms which they supplied to militiamen, encouraging them to use while raping Tutsi women and girls.

Nyiramasuhuko, and her son, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, are currently on trial at the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Ndindabahizi is also alleged to have murdered eight Tutsi men and women in a church in the Cyarwa neighbourhood of Butare.

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