Five years after Canada established a special office to investigate war criminals and passed specific legislation in this respect, the Canadian judiciary announced on October 19 that it had initiated its first legal proceedings under this legislation. Désiré Munyaneza, a 39-year old native from the south of Rwanda, is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for crimes committed in 1994 in Butare, a region in southern Rwanda. Arrested in Toronto, where he was living, Munyaneza appeared before a court sitting in Montreal. Inspector Graham Burnside, head of the war crimes division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the Canadian press, "Without the tremendous assistance and cooperation of our War Crimes Program partners in Canada and the United Nation's International Tribunal for Rwanda, we would never have been able to arrest this suspect today."