<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=5><B>UN worker in Kosovo accused in Rwanda genocide
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<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">By Evelyn Leopold
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<BR>UNITED NATIONS, April 13 (Reuters) - Years after a U.N. worker was suspected
<BR>of involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, he was arrested in Kosovo
<BR>where he had joined the United Nations for the second or third time.
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<BR>U.N. police in Kosovo reported on Friday that Callixte Mbarushimana had been
<BR>picked up in the southeastern town of Gnjilane on the basis of a March 15
<BR>international warrant from the government of Rwanda.
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<BR>Mbarushimana had worked for the U.N. Mission in Kosovo, the Yugoslav province
<BR>administered by the United Nations. He was fired by another U.N. agency in
<BR>November 1999, months after allegations against him surfaced.
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<BR>Charges against Mbarushimana include genocide and crimes against humanity,
<BR>Emmanuel Rukangira, the chief advocate at the Rwandan prosecutor's office
<BR>told Reuters in Kigali.
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<BR>Mbarushimana, a Hutu, is suspected of revealing to marauding Hutu militiamen
<BR>the hiding places of his Tutsi co-workers at the U.N. Development Program
<BR>(UNDP) office in Kigali during the 1994 genocide.
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<BR>An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the three
<BR>months of slaughter that ended when Tutsi exiles invaded and took over the
<BR>government.
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<BR>U.N. officials said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general for
<BR>peacekeeping, learned of the case this year and was reported to have been
<BR>horrified.
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<BR>He went to Kosovo earlier this month to make sure the arrest warrant was
<BR>delivered and that the United Nations waived immunities for the suspect, the
<BR>officials said.
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<BR>But the saga of how Mbarushimana slipped through several U.N. personnel
<BR>departments is not clear.
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<BR>UNDP reported it employed him as an "information assistant" in Rwanda from
<BR>July 1992 to December 1994. Sources in Kigali contend Mbarushimana ran the
<BR>UNDP office after expatriates left during the bloodletting.
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<BR>Then in December 1996, UNDP said it recommended him as a computer network
<BR>manager under a project Belgium financed in Rwanda and run by the U.N.
<BR>Volunteers, a Bonn-based U.N. body.
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<BR>"At some point thereafter allegations began to surface that Mr. Mbarushimana
<BR>was complicit in the murders of UNDP personnel and their families," UNDP said
<BR>in a statement in New York.
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<BR>He was dismissed by U.N. Volunteers on Nov. 25, 1999, a month before his
<BR>contract expired, UNDP said.
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<BR>Other U.N. officials said Mbarushimana then went to Angola, from where he
<BR>applied for the Kosovo post. Authorities in Rwanda said he may have worked
<BR>for UNDP or a related U.N. agency in Angola also but this could not be
<BR>verified.
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<BR>UNDP said it was not equipped to conduct an investigation and "turned the
<BR>matter over" to the prosecutor for the U.N. tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, set
<BR>up to try cases relating to the Rwanda genocide. Rwandan sources maintain the
<BR>tribunal did not pursue the case. </FONT></HTML>