A RWANDAN priest was arrested in France last week end, charged with "genocide, torture, ill-treatment, and degrading and inhuman activities".
The name of Fr Wenceslas Munyeshyaka was found on a Rwandan government fist of those believed to be the main organisers of the genocide and political assassinations committed in the country last year.
Witnesses in the French Catholic review, Golias, alleged that Fr Wenceslas, who has been living in France since last September, assisted the Hutu militias who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and opposition Hutus.
He was also charged with killing one young woman and raping others.
In a recent press conference, Fr Wenceslas insisted he was the victim of a sekup orchestrated by extremist members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. He claimed that he sheltered people of both ethnic gronps from the slaughter, and was ready to face any of his accusers in a court of law.
In Burundi, bishops have condemned "war lords" who recruit and arm teenagers to terrorize members of rival ethnic groups.
The bishops asked those involved to lay down their weapons immediately, saying that the "search for power, the spirit of vengeance and the habit of violence" were at the basis of the civil strife between Hutus and Tutsis.
"They are leading our society to suicide", they said.