Arusha tribunal found “reasonably effective”

A UN panel of experts reported on Monday that the ICTR and the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had been “reasonably effective” in carrying out their mandate, but proposed a number of technical recommendations to speed up procedures. The expert group, appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the request of the General Assembly, concluded that “the operations and functioning of the Tribunals are, given the constraints to which they are subject, reasonably effective in carrying out the missions mandated by the Security Council”. It noted that each tribunal was administered by one registry - in contrast to national structures where the prosecution and judges have separate administrations - and that this situation could lead to friction. The group did not find overpowering evidence in favour of having a separate prosecutor for each Tribunal, but suggested it would take “a minimum of seven or eight years” for the ICTR to complete its work, a UN press release stated.