Rwanda genocide suspect deported to Africa

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- A former top Rwandan politician indicted by a tribunal for his alleged role in the Rwandan genocide has been deported to Africa from Germany, officials said.

Augustin Ngirabatware, Rwanda's former minister of planning during the 1994 genocide, was moved from Frankfurt, Germany, to a U.N. detention facility in Arusha, Tanzania, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said.

The tribunal, based in Arusha, is an international court established by the U.N. Security Council to judge those charged in the genocide and with other serious international law violations in Rwanda in 1994.

Ngirabatware -- arrested in Frankfurt Sept. 17, 2007 -- is charged with nine counts, including genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Conventions, CNN reported.

He will make an initial appearance before the court at an undisclosed date, CNN said.

Ngirabatware is an ethnic Hutu from Gisenyi, a city in Rwanda's West Province, where the provisional government was based during the genocide.

Between 800,000 and 1 million Rwandans -- both minority Tutsis and majority Hutus with moderate political views -- were killed by alleged Hutu extremists during the genocide.

The killings began April 7, 1994, the day after a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot out of the sky with a missile as it prepared to land in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.