(AFP) – May 8, 2008

ARUSHA, Tanzania (AFP) — Tanzania has launched a manhunt to find the first-ever witness to escape from the United Nations war crimes tribunal for Rwanda, a police chief said on Thursday.

The Rwandan national was due to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Tuesday to alter his testimony after saying he bore false witness against a former foreign minister of Rwanda facing genocide-related charges.

"We, alongside our colleagues (from the ICTR), are on the hunt" for the witness, regional police chief Basilo Mutei told a press conference.

Tribunal judges warned the witness, code-named GFA, that he risked five years in jail, but allowed him to alter his testimony in a case involving three other government officials in office during the 1994 genocide.

A note found in the house where he was staying said he had gone to see his girlfriend. The letter added that he had not been given 400 dollars (260 euros) he had asked for to send to his family.

Police said the witness jumped over a wall surrounding the house, guarded by security men.

Since opening trials in 1997, the Tanzania-based tribunal has heard from more than 2,000 witnesses and has so far convicted 30 suspects on genocide charges and acquitted five.

According to the United Nations, some 800,000 victims, mainly Tutsis and Hutu moderates, died in the mass killing between April and July 1994, planned and carried out by majority Hutu extremists.

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