New prosecutor recommended for Arusha tribunal

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended Swiss Attorney General, Carla Del Ponte, as the new Prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. "I was looking for a strong and experienced prosecutor, and I think she is very good," Annan told reporters. The nomination has been submitted to the Security Council, which formally appoints prosecutors and judges to the Tribunals, his statement added. Del Ponte will replace departing Prosecutor Louise Arbour, a Canadian judge who has been appointed to her country's supreme court. A date has not yet been set for the Security Council to take action on Del Ponte's nomination. Genocide suspect to be extradited from US A US court has found that Elizaphan Ntakirutima, indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), should be extradited to stand trial on genocide-related charges. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit made the decision on an appeal from the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas that Ntakirutima should be surrendered to the Tribunal. He has been detained in Texas since his arrest in 1996. Meanwhile, Rwandan Prime Minister Pierre Celestin Rwigema on Friday called for "punitive measures" against countries harbouring genocide suspects - a move which outgoing ICTR prosecutor, Louise Arbour, said was beyond the power of the Tribunal. Rwigema also wished that the trials could be held at a faster pace, and announced the government's intention to send law students to the proceedings in Arusha as part of their training.