11.10.10 - ICTR/UN - DEPARTURE OF EXPERIENCED STAFF, A "STUMBLING BLOCK" FOR COMPLETION STRATEGY

11 October 2010 By

Arusha, October 11, 2010 (FH) - President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Judge Dennis Byron said lack of resources and departure of some of the most experienced staff of the Tribunal hampered good progress in completing the work of the Tribunal.

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‘'In all our efforts, we are facing one stumbling block: the staff situation,'' Judge Byron told the United Nations General Assembly as he presented the annual report of the Tribunal at the end of the week.

‘'We continue to lose many of our best and most experienced staff members, often to other institutions in the same field where they can obtain longer-term contracts,'' he said.

He revealed that between July 2009 and June, 2010 a total of 167 staff members left the Tribunal.

Judge Byron underscored that the Tribunal's staff is an indispensable element of completing the work of the Tribunal, established in November 1994 to prosecute perpetrator of the Rwandan genocide which left some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead in just 100 days.

Despite the above mentioned problem Judge Byron said his Tribunal made ‘'significant progress'' in the completion of its mandate.

He said judgment delivery in all of the ongoing or commencing cases at trial level is expected before the end of 2011.

NI/ER/GF