Security Council approves 23 new judges for criminal tribunal

The UN Security Council has approved a list of 23 judges for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania.

The list of nominees, which will be forwarded to the UN General Assembly, includes Mansoor Ahman of Pakistan, Teimuraz Bakradze of Georgia, Kocou Aresene Capo-Chichi of Benin, Frederick Mwela Choba of Zambia, Pavel Dolene of Slovenia, Sergei Aleckseievich Egorov of the Russian Federation and Robert Fremr of the Czech Republic.

Others are: Asoka de Zoysa Gunawardana of Sri Lanka, Mehmet Guney of Turkey, Michel Mahouve of Cameroon, Winston Churchill Matanzima Maqutu of Lesotho, Eric Mose of Norway, Arlette Ramaroson of Madagascar, Jai Ram Reddy of Fiji, William Hussoin Sekule of Tanzania, Emile Francis Short of Ghana and Francis M. Ssekandi of Uganda, Cheick Traore of Mali, Xenofon Ulianovschi of Moldova, Andresia Vaz of Senegal, Ines Monica Weinberg de Roca of Argentina, Mohammed Ibrahim Werfalli of Libya, and Lloyd George Williams of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The tribunal, due to complete its work in 2007 or 2008, has come under considerable criticism from the Rwandan government for what it says is the slow pace of trials. For its part, the tribunal has complained that the government in Kigali has impeded the availability of witnesses in Arusha by introducing new travel requirements for citizens leaving the country, thereby delaying procedures.

The three Trial Chambers and the Appeals Chamber at the tribunal currently have 14 independent judges. They were initially selected from a list of nominees submitted by UN member states. Nominations must take account of adequate representation of the principal legal systems of the world, and no two of them may be nationals of the same state. The judges are elected for a term of four years, after which they may be re-elected.