Idelphonse Hategekimana, Lieutenant and former Commander of the Ngoma Camp in Butare prefecture, was transferred on Wednesday, 19 February 2003 from the Republic of Congo to the ICTR Detention Facility in Arusha. He was arrested on 16 February 2003 by the Congolese authorities acting on a warrant of arrest issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on 2 February 2000.

He faces five counts of genocide, or, in the alternative, complicity in genocide; direct and public incitement to commit genocide; and crimes against humanity for rape and other inhumane acts.

Hategekimana, in his position as Commander of Ngoma Camp, allegedly ordered, transported, and led soldiers and militiamen to carry out, among others, attacks against Tutsi civilians, including street by street killings in the Muslim quarters of Ngoma and attacks at a convent and at the Groupe Scolaire where orphans were gathered.

The Lieutenant and former Commander of the Ngoma Camp is also said to have watched an attack at the Matyazo Dispensary while preventing his soldiers from intervening to stop it. In addition, Hategekimana is accused of conducting sensitization meetings to incite massacres and deploying soldiers to roadblocks to stop Tutsi civilians and bring them to Ngoma Camp to be killed.

Duty counsel will be assigned by the Registrar to represent Hategekimana until he engages Counsel of his own or is assigned Counsel under the rules of the Tribunal. Mr. Hategekimana will make his initial appearance before a Judge of the Tribunal shortly.

Hategekimana is the third to be arrested of nine principal genocide suspects named by the Government of the United States in its Rewards for Justice Programme, which is supporting the Tribunal's efforts to apprehend high-ranking fugitives from justice.

The Registrar of the Tribunal, Mr. Adama Dieng, thanked the authorities of Congo Brazaville and the United States for their assistance in the identification and arrest of Hategekimana.