UN tribunal hands more cases to national authorities

The prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has handed 10 cases of suspects in the 1994 genocide to authorities in Kigali, saying this would help the tribunal meet the deadline of completing its trials by 2008.

"[We need to] have these case referred to the Rwandan national jurisdiction if the tribunal is to meet its completion strategy," Hassan Bubacar Jallow, the ICTR prosecutor said on Tuesday during a small handover ceremony in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

Rwanda’s chief prosecutor Jean de Dieu Mucyo received the case files, saying the ICTR should also hand over cases of the "big fish".

"That would serve as a lesson to people with genocide ideology and also appease the survivors," he added.

Earlier this year the ICTR handed over the case files of 15 other suspects to Rwandan authorities. However, tribunal officials have said they cannot hand over the cases of key planners of the genocide until Rwanda repeals the death penalty.

Currently, the ICTR is trying 25 indictees. Another 16 are awaiting trial and 14 more are at large.

The UN Security Council established the tribunal in 1994 to bring to trial the people who bear the greatest responsibility for the genocide, in which an estimated 937,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed.