German authorities announced on Thursday the arrest of three men suspected of belonging to the ethnic Hutu rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
The FDLR was created by perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, who fled to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo after President Paul Kagame took power in Rwanda.
They are held chiefly responsible for the bloodbath -- in which at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered -- and remain opposed to Kagame's regime.
The arrested trio are suspected of having set up an FDLR cell in Germany and having taken over publicity and propaganda work for the rebel group after the arrests of several of its leaders.
The three German nationals, identified as Bernard T., 49, Felicien B., 43, and Jean Bosco U., 66, were arrested on Wednesday in the western cities of Bonn and Cologne, the federal prosecutor's office said.
Arrest warrants on charges including membership of a foreign terrorist organisation had been issued by an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice last month, it added.
Investigators searched the men's homes as well as those of 11 suspected FDLR supporters in several German states in an operation involving around 150 officers, it said.
In May 2011, Ignace Murwanashyaka, then-head of the FDLR, and his deputy, Straton Musoni, went on trial in the southwestern city of Stuttgart accused of masterminding from their homes in Germany atrocities in eastern DR Congo in 2008 and 2009.
The FDLR is believed to have between 3,000 and 4,400 members, and has been accused of cross-border attacks into Rwanda during the latest unrest in DR Congo's volatile east, where the Congolese army has been struggling to put down a rebellion by Tutsi mutineers
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