22.12.06 - ICTR/UN - RWANDA WORRIED OVER THE OUTSOURCING OF THE ICTR’S TRIALS

Arusha, December 20 2006 (FH) – During the meeting the United Nations Security Council held last Friday in New York to hear the international tribunals’ reports, the Rwandan delegate has voiced his concern about the outsourcing of the trials of those of the defendants the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will not be able to judge in time. According to the Council’s media services, Mr. Joseph Nsengimana has stressed that these trials should take place as close as possible to where the crimes have been committed. Mr. Nsengimana, quoted by the media services, has declared that such proximity « would foster national reconciliation and help putting an end to the culture of impunity ». Although the ICTR never confirmed it, Belgium, France and the Netherlands would have signed an agreement aiming at transferring to these jurisdictions defendants the ICTR could lack time to judge. Once President Mose and Prosecutor Jallow finished talking about his case, several diplomats among whom the Rwandan delegate, denounced the situation of Felicien Kabuga, suspected of bankrolling the genocide that rages on in Eastern and Central Africa. The Rwandan delegate has also brought up the case of Augustin Ngirabatware, Kabuga’s son-in-law, against whom the tribunal has issued an arrest warrant. Mr. Joseph Nsengimana, who has also announced the suppression of death penalty in his country, asked that the completion strategy of the ICTR would include the transmission of all its documents and archives to Rwanda. He added that the Rwandan government is considering setting up a genocide prevention and educational center where these documents could be kept. Several diplomats have suggested transferring defendants of intermediary rank to national jurisdictions as a way of respecting the ICTR’s deadline of 2008. The French delegate has declared that these tribunals’ mission would run until all the prosecuted criminals have been tried. PB © Hirondelle News Agency