UN memo on Habyarimana plane crash "under seal"

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Friday confirmed its receipt of a confidential UN memorandum concerning the circumstances of the shooting down on 6 April 1994 of the aircraft carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi. Having been made aware that the document related to issues which might in future be raised before a Trial Chamber, Tribunal President Navenethem
Pillay directed that the document and accompanying correspondence be immediately placed under seal in the President's Chambers, a press release stated. Neither Pillay nor any other of the tribunal judges had read the document, it added. The document has been the focus of considerable media
attention since the Canadian 'National Post' newspaper published a story citing a UN document that allegedly implicated the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the downing of Habyarimana's aircraft. The Rwandan government, of which the RPF is a key element, has rejected the allegations.

Following a request by a number of defence attorneys working at the ICTR, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had decided to forward the memo to the ICTR, Pillay's statement said. Annan had done so, it added, "so that if the matter is raised before the Tribunal, the appropriate Trial Chamber could decide if the document is relevant to the defense of any of the cases on which the attorneys are working and, if so, determine under what
circumstances and conditions the document can be released." The three-page memo had been prepared, "on his own initiative," by Michael Hourigan, formerly a leader of one of the investigation teams of the Office of the Prosecutor investigating the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Judge Pillay's statement said. At the time of writing, it was "an internal and confidential matter" at the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) for which Hourigan was working, and that was why it was not earlier sent
to the ICTR, she added.