ICTR Registrar defends withdrawal from commission

The Registrar of the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Adama Dieng, on Tuesday dissociated the Tribunal from the assertions made in a statement issued by the president of the Association of Defence Advocates (ADAD) before the ICTR, and said that his office was an independent organ of ICTR.

The Association's statement was on the registrar's withdrawal of his proposal to the Rwandan authorities of a joint commission to investigate allegations of mistreatment of prosecution witnesses at the Tribunal, an ICTR statement said. Dieng said his decision to withdraw the proposal was due to misunderstandings about the intended mandate of the commission.

"The registrar wishes to underline that he exercises his functions in full independence in accordance with the statute of the Tribunal and the rule of procedure and evidence, and not on the basis of the partial interests of the parties before the Tribunal or under pressure from any external entity," the ICTR statement said. "The registrar did not, and does not, interpret Rwanda's views as 'manipulative demands' as the ADAD statement calls them," it said.

The ADAD statement had, among other things, praised Dieng for the decision to withdraw, saying that the trial chambers together with the relevant tribunal organs "are competent to deal with any issues regarding prosecution and defence witnesses", the Arusha-based Internews agency reported.

"The attempt by Kigali to unilaterally expand the mandate of the commission is a clear vindication of our position that the commission should never have been established in the first place," the ADAD statement had said.

It had also said that the defence lawyers at the ICTR were not against cooperation with the Rwandan government. "We support constructive cooperation with Rwanda and any other state for that matter, as long as this is done within the strict confines of the statute and rules governing the operations of the Tribunal. We shall continue to condemn actions by any state that amount to intimidation, blackmail and are an affront to the independence and impartiality of the Tribunal," the ADAD statement added.

The registrar announced on 18 April the withdrawal of the taskforce which would look into the allegations of mistreatment of witnesses at the Tribunal over misunderstandings on the intended mandate.

The decision to set up the taskforce, which was to have comprised two officials each from the registry and Rwandan government, was announced after a meeting between Dieng and Rwandan Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo on 4 March in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

Meanwhile, Dieng also said on Tuesday that the internal panel investigating the backgrounds of defence investigators was continuing its work in order to ensure that persons who might have participated or been involved in the genocide and other violations of humanitarian law in Rwanda were not involved in any manner whatsoever in the judicial process of the Tribunal, according to the ICTR statement.

"In this connection, on 2 April 2002, the registry suspended a defence investigator, Mr Pierre-Claver Karangwa, pending the completion of such investigations into his background," the statement said. "As has been the position in other cases, should the investigations, when completed, reveal no credible evidence, the registrar will lift the suspension," it added.