Kenya launches public appeal for arrest of Rwandan genocide suspect

Kenyan authorities on Monday launched a public appeal offering a cash reward for information leading to the apprehension of Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga, who is believed to be hiding in the east African country.

The police posted the photo of the fugitive millionaire on a quarter-page notice headlined "WANTED FOR GENOCIDE" in all the daily newspapers.

The notice lists Kabuga's aliases and asks the public to report any information on his whereabouts to police but cautioned that the Rwandan genocide suspect is extremely dangerous.

"Felicien Kabuga is an extremely dangerous fugitive. Anyone with any information is urged to immediately report to the nearest police station or inform any government office," the notice reads.

"A large reward awaits anyone with information leading to his capture," it said, under Kabuga's phone.

The appeal to the public comes almost a month after the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Hassan Bubacar Jallow, discussed with Kenyan officials the apprehension of Kabuga, one of the 18 fugitives wanted by the court.

"Felicien Kabuga is a fugitive wanted for financing and masterminding the 1994 genocide in Rwanda," the notice says.

The U.S. has placed a 5 million U.S. dollar bounty on the head of Kabuga who is said to have financed the Interahamwe, a militant group that carried out the killing of more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in genocide carried out in Rwanda in 1994.

Tribunal investigators as well as some of the foreign missions in Kenya have in the past expressed concern at what they say the collusion between the country's political leadership and security forces to shield the fugitive.

The Kenyan government has said it doubted Kabuga was in the country, but the ICTR's investigators have said he owned businesses in Kenya and that he has narrowly escaped arrest three times there.

Jallow met with Kenyan authorities regarding Kabuga last year, but returned because he has said there had been no progress finding him.

But reports are rife that some of Kabuga's assets are in Kenya, a country accused of hiding Kabuga for many years. Kenya has however repeatedly denied the fugitive's presence.

Sources said the Kenyan leadership is taking up steps to investigate the alleged existence of assets belonging to the most wanted Rwandan genocide fugitive, with a view of attaching them.

Source: Xinhua