Three former members of the 1994 Interim Government of Rwanda, arrested and detained in Cameroon in April this year (see Press Release No. 176), were transferred to the ICTR Detention Facility in Arusha on Saturday, 31 July 1999.

The three ex-Ministers transferred on Saturday are:

Jérôme Bicamumpaka, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation;

Justin Mugenzi, former Minister of Commerce and Industry;

Prosper Mugiraneza, former Minister for the Civil Service.

The three accused, together with Casimir Bizimungu, a former Minister for Health who is already in custody in Arusha, are jointly charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Bizimungu was arrested in Kenya and transferred to the Tribunal's Detention Facility in Arusha in February this year.

However, as part of a strategy to seek joint trials calculated to show the 1994 genocide as a far-reaching conspiracy in the Government at the time, the Prosecutor, is seeking a decision of the Trial Chambers to allow a joint indictment of these four individuals with several former senior government officials of whom five are already in custody in Arusha. The five are Edouard Karemera, former Minister of Interior; Andre Rwamakuba, former Minister of Education; Mathieu Ngirumpatse, former Director General for Foreign Affairs and President of Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement (MRND); Joseph Nzirorera, former President of the National Assembly and Secretary-General of the MRND; and Juvenal Kajelijeli, former Bourgmestre of Mukingo. The case is collectively referred to as "the Government case".

The total number of accused persons detained under the authority of the Tribunal is now 38, of whom one is in custody in Texas awaiting the result of an appeal against his transfer to Arusha.