Kigali - Rwandan authorities have charged the Hutu Prime Minister, Mr Pierre-Celestin Rwigema, with genocide, but the charge is on hold, judicial sources said yesterday.
The allegation is understood to date back to 1997, but to have been blocked by the former justice minister Mr Faustin Nteziryayo, also a Hutu, who resigned in January and fled to the United States.
Mr Rwigema (43) heads the embattled Democratic and Republican Movement (MRD), and has been prime minister of the national unity government since August 1997.
"The file is with the Kigali prosecutor's office," a judicial source said. "Mr Rwigema is in particular accused of distributing weapons during the genocide in the Biryogo district of Kigali."