BBC News Online: World: Africa

Bishop charged with genocide

Bishop Samuel Musabyimana, who was transferred to the Tanzanian town of Arusha following his arrest, has been charged there by the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda which is holding genocide hearings in Tanzania.

The Anglican bishop was arrested in South Africa last year after arriving there on a false passport, but a bureaucratic error led to his deportation to Kenya.

More than 750,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the genocide.

The Kenyan lawyer acting for Samuel Musabyimana says he was arrested outside his Nairobi apartment by members of the Kenyan criminal investigation department and UN officials.

Church under scrutiny

At the time of the genocide in 1994, Samuel Musabyimana was the Anglican bishop in a diocese 40km (25 miles) south-west of the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

According to thea statement from the ICTR, the bishop is accused of having publicly stated prior to the start of the genocide that "the situation for the Tutsi was very bad and that their end had arrived".

"As the refugees arrived at his Shyogwe diocese, Musabyamana instructed his subordinate to register them according to their ethnic groups, a list that was later used to select Tutsi refugees who were taken to nearby sites to be killed," the ICTR statement said.

The bishop is also alleged to have paid the Hutu militias who carried out the killings, the statement said.

Shortly after the genocide was over, survivors and investigators began to ask questions about the role played by certain members of the church.

Mr Musabyimana was apparently arrested last year in South Africa after entering the country on a false passport.

But a mix-up by the South African authorities led him to be deported to Kenya instead of being handed over to the tribunal.