Genocide tribunal abolishes joint trials

The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has abolished group trials for genocide suspects whose cases are pending before the court, a senior official told IRIN on Wednesday.

"We have decided to do away with the system of grouping suspects together under one trial," Adama Dieng, the tribunal's registrar, said on a visit to the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

"It creates a lot of voluminous work, and slows down the pace of conducting the trials," he said.

Dieng said the tribunal was conducting eight trials, five of which were group trials, with only three suspects being tried singly.

The UN Security Council set up the tribunal in 1994 to try the planners of Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which up to 937,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutu were killed, according to Rwandan government estimates.

Based in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, the tribunal is scheduled to complete its work in 2008.

One trial currently before the tribunal, dubbed the "Butare trial", has six co-accused, while the four other group trials have four co-respondents each.

Since its first trial in January 1997, the tribunal has handed down 17 judgements involving 23 accused: 20 convictions and three acquittals. Six of the convicts are serving their sentences in Mali.

Some 57 suspects are presently in the tribunal's custody, 17 of whom still await trial. Nine are waiting to appeal, and six are due to be transferred. The tribunal has indicted 14 others who are still at large.

Survivors of the genocide and the Rwandan government have criticised the court for being "deliberately slow" in completing trials.

In 2003, the UN Security Council increased the number of tribunal judges to 18, in an effort to get the tribunal to complete its work on time.

"As a result, it is estimated that the cases involving the 25 accused whose trials are currently in progress will be completed from 2005 to 2006," Dieng said.

In its remaining three years, the tribunal hopes to have completed the trials for up to 75 accused - a significant portion of whom are still at large.