NAIROBI, Kenya -- In defiance of an international quest for justice, Kenya's president has declared that he will provide sanctuary to Rwandan ringleaders who face indictment for the 1994 murders of 500,000 of their countrymen.


Daniel arap Moi, in a statement published Thursday, also said he would jail anyone from the UN War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda who sets foot in Kenya in pursuit of suspects.


"Any such characters come here, they will be arrested," the president announced. "I shall not allow any of them to enter Kenya to serve summons and look for people here. No way."


The president gave as his reason his belief that the United Nations should investigate not just the killings but the events precipitating them before it pursues war criminals.


Moi's decree compounded frustrations over providing Rwandans a measure of justice for some of the worst crimes in the history of Africa. And it could further destabilize a fragile and needy part of the continent.


The decision puts Moi's already wobbly and aid-dependent government at odds with the binding obligations of the charter of the UN. And it tarnishes Kenya's international image, already battered by rising crime, corruption and political heavy-handedness. Moi twice spoke directly to reporters Thursday and both times made clear that he stood by his statement.


In The Hague, headquarters of the Rwanda war crimes tribunal, prosecutor Richard Goldstone, a South African jurist, said Kenya's refusal to cooperate "would constitute an extremely serious setback ... and such an action would be regarded as a breach of Kenya's obligations under international law."


Moi dismissed the complaints. "Kenya is not a signatory to a farcical situation," he said, his voice rising.


Kenya, separated from Rwanda by Lake Victoria, has become one of several exile headquarters for some of Rwanda's former government leaders and their associates -- some of whom are believed to be masterminds of last year's genocide of ethnic Tutsis and their ethnic Hutu supporters.


These ringleaders, almost all of them extremist Hutus, are the targets of the international tribunal, which has been moving slowly toward its first indictments after a painstaking investigation. Last month, deputy prosecutor Honore Rakotomanana said the first batch of charges finally would be disclosed and arrest warrants signed in November. Ultimately, the tribunal is expected to indict about 400 people. It is unknown how many potential suspects are in Kenya, particularly since the exiles are affluent and mobile. But published accounts and diplomatic sources have identified half a dozen or more high-profile suspects who maintain homes, businesses and bank accounts in Nairobi. Diplomats guessed that others who fear indictment will regard Moi's statement as an official invitation to seek refuge here.


Moi insists the UN should investigate who was responsible for the mysterious downing of an airplane that killed Rwanda's president 18 months ago over the national capital of Kigali.


That deed was the spark that touched off Rwanda's frenzy of killing, one-on-one, with machetes and clubs, from village to village. The events left a death toll estimated at anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million.


Ultimately, the Tutsi rebel army triumphed and drove genocide ringleaders out of the country, along with some 2 million Hutus.