Rwandan Genocide Suspects Detained in Belgium

A spokesman declined to give further details on their identity or on the reasons for the arrests. Rwanda’s foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to calls for comment.

Rwanda’s state media identified the three suspects as Pierre Basabose, Seraphin Twahirwa and Christophe Ndangali. Mr. Basabose is a former soldier, who was indicted in 2015 for his alleged role distributing guns and money to the Interahamwe militia that led the genocide. Mr. Twahirwa was a former civil servant indicted in 2014 for allegedly forming and commanding a 600-strong militia that killed thousands in Rwanda’s central and western provinces. Mr. Ndangali worked with the education ministry and was indicted in 2012 for allegedly patrolling and mounting roadblocks in the killing zones. The Rwandan prosecutor’s office didn’t return calls seeking comment

The Belgian detentions came just a few months after the arrest of Félicien Kabuga, a former tea and coffee tycoon who is accused of financing the genocide. Mr. Kabuga, who allegedly bankrolled the infamous Interahamwe, a Hutu militia that slaughtered thousands of ethnic Tutsis, was arrested by French authorities in May, which ended a decadeslong manhunt.

The 84-year-old Mr. Kabuga is also facing charges over his funding of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, a radio station used to fan hatred and incite killings of the minority Tutsi ethnic group and moderate members of the Hutu majority who opposed their slaughter.

Mr. Kabuga’s lawyers have denied the charges that include the alleged importation of several thousand machetes used during the killings. Last month, a French court ruled that he should be sent for trial at the International Criminal Tribunal in the Tanzanian city of Arusha.

The identities of the suspects in Belgium were conducted with the help of witness testimony collected in Rwanda by a Belgian investigation, according to the Belgian media. Belgian officials said the detentions didn’t appear to be linked to the arrest of Mr. Kabuga.

The quarter of a century manhunt for the so-called “genocidaires” who fled after the 1994 killings has taken investigators across the world. The United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda indicted more than 90 people and prosecuted 80 of them before it ceased operation in 2015.

Meanwhile, Rwanda has stepped up efforts to track down and arrest all suspects in the four-month carnage that was only stopped by rebel fighters, led by then-rebel leader Paul Kagame, who has been Rwanda’s president since 2000.

Some of those allegations have been controversial. Last month, Rwandan authorities detained Paul Rusesabagina—a permanent U.S. resident whose role helping victims of the genocide inspired the Hollywood movie “Hotel Rwanda”—as he transited through Dubai Airport in what his family and lawyers described as a kidnapping. Rwanda’s government says Mr. Rusesabagina, a Kagame critic, wasn’t kidnapped but arrested on an international warrant. He has been charged with a raft of crimes, including terrorism, which he denies.

Over the past two decades, Belgium has held several trials of Rwandans accused of involvement in the genocide. In December, a court in Belgium convicted Fabien Neretse, a former Rwandan agricultural scientist for war crimes and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

—Laurence Norman in Brussels contributed to this article.

Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
Christophe Ndangali was identified by Rwanda’s state media as one of the three men arrested by Belgian police for suspected involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said his name was Christopher Ndangali. (Corrected on Oct. 4)