Government opposes plan to establish ICTR office in DRC

The government of Rwanda is not in favour of establishing of an office of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), empowered to arrest and prosecute suspected genocide suspects on Congolese territory, Rwanda's spokesman, Joseph Bideri, told the East African newspaper.

Bideri said it was the responsibility of the DRC government to arrest the genocide suspects and hand them over to the Tribunal, in Arusha, Tanzania.
"It is nauseating that both the Tribunal and the DRC have a list of the suspects, and yet not a single indictment has been effected there - in a country that hosts the highest number of genocidaires," the East African weekly quoted him saying.

US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Pierre-Richard Prosper told reporters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on 12 June that, in principle, an agreement had been reached to open an office of the Tribunal in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, and that the US would support the project. The Tribunal’s spokesman, Kingsley Moghalu, told IRIN that whereas the decision had been reached, the plan could not be implemented until funding had been secured.

The eight Rwandans believed to be living in the DRC are Augustin Bizimana, Jean-Baptiste Gatete, Augustin Bizimungu, Ildephonse Hategekimana, Augustin Ngirabatware, Ildephonse Nizeyimana, Protais Ntiranya and Callixte Nzabonimana.

Prosper told reporters in Nairobi that this group constituted the leadership of the Armee de liberation du Rwanda (Alir), which comprised the Hutu extremist Interahamwe, members of the former Rwandan armed forces, and more recent recruits. He said it was believed they were fuelling the war in the DRC either through financial backing or in "commander roles".

The International Crisis Group, an advocacy think-tank, says President Joseph Kabila's government continues to support the perpetrators of the genocide.

"It is crucial that the Congolese government take the initiative and start by handing over a symbolic number of genocidaires to the ICTR, and immediately suspend all deliveries of arms and ammunition to the Alir in the Kivus" of eastern DRC, Crisis Group said in a recent report.