Security Council calls for support to UN tribunals

With the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) set to close in 2010, and with more than half its cases yet to go to trial, the president of the UN Security Council on Wednesdays called on states in the region to cooperate with investigations and for all member states of the UN to pay their dues. The ad hoc UN to tribunal was created in 1994 following the Rwanda genocide. Full cooperation with the ICTR, as well as with the UN Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), is an obligation of every UN member state, Council President Andrey Denisov said. He also said it was essential if the tribunals were to complete their work on time. Denisov, who is also the Russian Federation's ambassador to the UN, called on officials at the tribunals to meet the council's completion strategy laid out in an August 2003 resolution. It calls on the ICTR and the ICTY to complete investigations by the end of 2004, to complete all trials by the end of 2008, and to complete all work in 2010. But the council acknowledged that the failure of some UN member states to pay dues was "having a disruptive effect" on the timetable. The ICTR has a funding gap of more than US $50 million. Denisov also called on states in the region to support investigations on the Rwandan Patriotic Army and efforts to bring to trial Felicien Kabuga, a former Rwandan businessman who the ICTR has indicted. The states he singled out were Rwanda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the Congo. The ICTR’s prosecutor, Hassan Jallow, told the council in June that his office was setting out measures to implement the completion strategy and a timeframe, but he also said the number of accused still to be prosecuted between now and the end of 2008 was greater than the number of those whose cases the tribunal has concluded in the 10 years from its inception. "With the anticipated increase in the number of accused standing trial, it was imperative that the capacity of the Office of the Prosecutor be improved," he said, adding a requested to increase the number of his staff. By July, the ICTR had 19 accused individuals in detention. Jallow told the council in June he expected the tribunal to try another 29 people. The tribunal is mandated to refer cases to competent national jurisdictions if the individuals accused are not found to be most responsible for genocide or other crimes under the tribunal’s mandate. At least five people in detention at the ICTR are to be transferred to Rwandan national jurisdictions. The cases of at least four indicted fugitives are also to be transferred. ICTR’s president, Judge Erik Møse, told the council in June that one issue with transferring cases to the Rwandan judicial system has been that it allows the death penalty while the ICTR does not. But he also said Rwanda had given assurances that it could waive the death penalty in these cases. Belgium is to bring to trial Rwandan genocide suspect and prominent banker Ephrem Nkezabera. He was recently arrested in that country. The Hirondelle News Agency quoted Jallow as saying, "We requested the Belgian authorities to prosecute the suspect and they kindly accepted to do so."