Rwandan intelligence chief arrested in London for war crimes

Scotland Yard agents have arrested the director general of Rwanda's national intelligence and security services Karenzi Karake, who is wanted by Spain for war crimes, media reported on Tuesday.

Karake has been accused of ordering the massacre of civilian populations during his time as the chief of military intelligence during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, BBC reported.

Karake, 54, is also charged with ordering the execution of three Spanish nationals working for Medicos del Mundo, or Doctors of the World, a humanitarian NGO, according to EFE news agency.

Police said Karake was apprehended at Heathrow Airport on June 20 after a European arrest warrant was issued on behalf of the authorities in Spain.

The arrest warrant was issued, according to BBC, in 2008 by a Spanish judge who indicted Karake for war crimes along with 39 other current or former high-ranking Rwandan military officials for their roles in the Rwandan genocide.

From April to June 1994, extremist Hutu militias killed around 800,000 people from the ethnic Tutsi minority, in addition to moderate Hutu politicians.

The Rwandan government expressed "an outrage" over the arrest of its intelligence chief, BBC said.

Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo called the arrest "an outrage" adding that: "Western solidarity in demeaning Africans is unacceptable."

Williams Nkurunziza, Rwanda's High Commissioner to Britain, said it was "an insult to our collective conscience".