France agrees to receive genocide convicts

France became on Friday the first European country to sign an agreement with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to implement sentences imposed by the UN court, the tribunal reported. The tribunal reported that the French ambassador in Tanzania, Jean Francois Lionnet, signed the agreement on behalf of his government, and ICTR Registrar Adama Dieng represented the tribunal. The agreement is expected to take effect after ratification by the French National Assembly. The agreement brings the number of countries that have entered such agreements with the tribunal to four. The other countries are Benin, Mali and Swaziland. The tribunal said negotiations were in progress with other African and European countries. Lionnet said that the agreement signified France's commitment to promote international justice. Dieng said the support of all UN member states was necessary in order to enable the tribunal to achieve its mandate, that of trying the alleged perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Under the tribunal’s rules, a convict may serve the sentence imposed in Rwanda or in the prison of a state that has agreed to accept the tribunal's convicts. The sentence is served under the tribunal’s supervision. Currently, six prisoners, including former Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, are serving their sentences in Bamako, Mali.