Judges give Kigali more time to produce witnesses

Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda have adjourned till Wednesday the trial of two prominent genocide suspects, because an insufficient number of witnesses have arrived at the trial venue in Arusha, northern Tanzanian, due to new travel regulations introduced by Rwanda.

Former Foreign Minister Eliezer Niyitegeka was due to appear before the court Tuesday, while the collective trial of former Family and Women's Affairs Minister Pauline Nyiramasuhuko - and her six associates together known as the Butare Group - had been adjourned five times over the last two weeks, Internews reported.

The judge for the Butare case, Navanethem Pillay of South Africa, said she had delayed Niyitegeka's trial to give the government of Rwanda time to comply with an order the UN Security Council served it on 21 June to allow witnesses to travel without delay. On Wednesday, Internews reported, Judge William Sekule of Tanzania, presiding over the Butare trial, had ordered Rwanda to ease travel restrictions on the witnesses.

The chief of the Tribunal's Witnesses and Victims Support Section, Saleem Vahidy of Pakistan, said the Council's order to Kigali was meant to ensure that witnesses travelled to Arusha unhampered, inasmuch as all states were under obligation to ease the Tribunal's work. Now, he said, the Tribunal's Registry had acquired some documents required by the Rwandan government to enable witnesses to travel.

"The position at the moment is that we may get some witnesses by tomorrow [Wednesday]," he told the judges.

Kigali's representative at the Tribunal, Martin Ngoga, said witnesses due to attend the trials must first obtain clearance documents giving birth details, certificates of good conduct, and must have their identity cards verified before being issued with passports. These regulations applied to all Rwandans wanting to travel out of the country, he said.

"We did not warn the UN court in advance regarding the new immigration procedures introduce by the Rwandan government," Internews quoted Ngoga as saying.