UN tribunal launches internal probe into its hiring process

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) announced on Thursday it had launched an investigation into allegations that one of its senior officials unduly influenced the recruitment of another senior official.

A team will investigate whether ICTR spokesman Roland Amoussouga "assisted in anyway in the process of recruiting" the head of the court's defence management section, Pascal Besnier; according to Mandiaye Niang, the special assistant to the tribunal's registrar.

Niang said the team would consist of four senior UN officials and would take 14 days to complete its investigation. He also said Besnier's offer of employment was being held, pending the teams' findings.

The announcement follows an anonymous e-mail sent to senior staff in the court containing private correspondences between Amoussouga - a Togolese-born Canadian citizen - and Besnier, a Frenchman.

The probe team is also expected to look into how Amoussouga’s e-mail was hacked and if the e-mails of other senior staff members have been invaded.

The ICTR was set up to prosecute key Rwandan officials who planned and executed the 1994 genocide in their country, in which, according to government figures, at least 937,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days.
The tribunal has, so far, rendered 25 judgments, including three acquittals. The trials of another 25 accused are in progress.