Security Council meets on UN tribunals

The UN Security Council is due to hold a private meeting on Friday to discuss whether the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) should each have a separate prosecutor, UN News reported. The prosecutor for both tribunals, Carla Del Ponte, was expected to brief the council during the meeting. She has been the prosecutor for the Yugoslavia tribunal, which the council set up at The Hague in 1993, as well as the Rwanda tribunal, which the council established in 1995 with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. Both tribunals are trying the alleged perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia. UN News reported that Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended to the council that Del Ponte's contract as ICTY prosecutor be extended for another year and a separate prosecutor be appointed for the Rwanda tribunal. Annan has reiterated that separating the two posts would accelerate the work of both courts, UN News reported. Meanwhile, four international NGOs have appealed to the UN Security Council to ensure that any changes in the office of the prosecutor do not undermine the tribunal's independence or its capacity to render justice "fully and impartially". In a letter to the council on Wednesday, the Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and the Rencontre Africaine pour la Defense des Droits de l'Homme urged the council to ensure that the changes do not undermine the tribunal's efforts to prosecute charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against members of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), now ruling the country. The council should reaffirm its support for the prosecutor in the execution of his or her duties, including prosecutions of those charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, regardless of their political, ethnic, or national affiliation, the NGOs said. "Only if the ICTR dispenses justice fully, impartially, and to all parties will it fulfil the purpose for which the Security Council established it, contributing to peace and reconciliation in the region," the NGOs said.