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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

RWANDA: Security Council appoints separate prosecutor for ICTR

NAIROBI, 29 August 2003 (IRIN) - The 15-member UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to create a separate prosecutor's post for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, UN News Service reported.

Until now, Swiss lawyer Carla Del Ponte held the post along with that of chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The council split the two jobs saying it was convinced that both tribunals would operate more "efficiently and expeditiously" with their own lead attorneys, UN News reported.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked the council to reappoint Del Ponte to the Yugoslav tribunal for a four-year term beginning on 15 September; and for Justice Hassan Jallow, of The Gambia, to head the Rwandan tribunal for the next four years. The deputy prosecutor of the Rwandan tribunal, Bongani Majola, will assume duties of that court until Jallow is sworn in.

In its resolution, the council called on both tribunals to ensure the completion of investigations by the end of 2004 and to complete all trials by the end of 2008. All works of the court should be finished in 2010.

The Rwandan tribunal was established to investigate and prosecute persons responsible for orchestrating the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which some 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed. The body can also prosecute those responsible for human rights abuses. Rwanda has complained about what it said was the slow progress in judging the suspects held in the tribunal's detention facility in Arusha, northeastern Tanzania, and of mismanagement of the court.

In turn, Del Ponte has accused the Rwandan government of refusing to provide travel clearance for Rwandans at home to go stand trial at the court. Reports say that the Rwandan government started to invoke these procedures when Del Ponte threatened to prosecute soldiers of the present army, accused of having carried out mass retaliatory killings of Hutus soon after the genocide.

In Kigali, while welcoming the Security Council's decision, Rwandan Prosecutor-General Gerald Gahima said, "We need the tribunal to be efficient, expedite trials and be responsive to the aspirations of the victims of genocide."

Theme(s): (IRIN) Human Rights

[ENDS]

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