UN elects 18 more judges for genocide tribunal

The UN General Assembly elected on Wednesday 18 temporary judges to help speed up the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, UN News reported. "It is envisioned that the additional judicial manpower will allow the tribunal to complete its trials by 2008, instead of the original tentative date of 2017," UN News reported. Rwanda has often accused the tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, of being too slow in conducting trials of major genocide suspects. However, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, has complained that Rwanda has been refusing to cooperate. The temporary judges, who will be joining the tribunal's nine permanent judges, will serve four-year terms. They are Aydin Sefa Akay (Turkey), Florence Rita Arrey (Cameroon), Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda), Robert Fremr (Czech Republic), Taghreed Hikmat (Jordan), Karin Hokborg (Sweden), Vagn Joensen (Denmark), Gberdao Gustave Kam (Burkina Faso), Tan Sri Dato 'Hj. Mohd. Azmi Dato 'Hj. Kamaruddin (Malaysia), Flavia Lattanzi (Italy), Kenneth Machin (United Kingdom), Joseph Edward Chiondo Masanche (United Republic of Tanzania), Lee Gacuiga Muthoga (Kenya), Seon Ki Park (Republic of Korea), Mparany Mamy Richard Rajohnson (Madagascar), Emile Francis Short (Ghana), Albertus Henricus Joannes Swart (Netherlands) and Aura Emerita Guerra de Villalaz (Panama). The UN Security Council set up the tribunal in 1995 to try the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, which is thought to have resulted in the deaths of at least 800,000 people; mainly Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. Meanwhile, the Rwandan News Agency (RNA) reported that at least 3,500 genocide suspects in Kigali Central Prison were being taught the basic workings of a traditional court system, the Gacaca, that authorities have introduced to speed up the trial of thousands of people. The director of the prison, Antoine Rutayisire, said that the suspects would attend court drills three times a week with their visiting relatives. "When family members visit the suspects, they reveal to them [suspects] the progress of Gacaca courts, unity and reconciliation and at times advise them to confess their crimes," he said. The agency said, so far, 1,285 prisoners had pleaded guilty to genocide crimes. It said that a survey by the country’s National Reconciliation Commission showed that all the prisoners who had confessed would testify at the Gacaca trials, with two-thirds of them doing so as prosecution witnesses. Kigali Central Prison holds 6,212 genocide suspects – 5,403 men, 790 women and 19 children - RNA reported.