Ex-Rwandan official arrested for genocide

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- A former Rwandan minister was arrested and turned over to the U.N. Rwandan war crimes tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, the organization said.

Callixte Nzabonimana -- who was minister of youth and sports in Rwanda's interim government in 1994 -- was arrested Tuesday in the Tanzanian town of Kigoma and transferred Wednesday to Arusha, location of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the United Nations said in a news release.

Nzabonimana, 55, faces six charges, including counts of genocide, making direct and public incitements to commit genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide. The indictment charged the former minister conspired with others to develop a plan to eliminate Rwanda's civilian Tutsi population and members of the political opposition.

The U.N. Security Council set up the Rwandan war crimes tribunal in 1994 in the wake of that year's genocide, during which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered -- most hacked by machete or clubbed to death -- in 100 days beginning in early April of that year.