Arusha tribunal welcomes government cooperation

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Carla Del Ponte, on Wednesday welcomed the first official delegation from Rwanda to the prosecutor’s office in The Hague, The Netherlands, and expressed her appreciation for “the excellent cooperation between ICTR and Rwanda”. The Rwandan delegation, which included the ambassador to the EU, Benelux and the Vatican, Jacques Bihozagara, Rwanda’s Chief Prosecutor Gerald Gahima and Military Prosecutor Andrew Rwigamba, assured del Ponte of Rwanda’s “full cooperation” with the tribunal. She replied that the ICTR was “her top priority”, according to an ICTR press statement. Del Ponte also said she would travel to Rwanda in November to meet the Rwandan authorities and visit her Kigali office. The visits are considered a further demonstration of improved relations between the ICTR and Rwanda, which had been sharply critical of its slow progress.