U.S. prepared for another extension of ICTR closure

By Rwanda News Agency
October 9, 2009

Kigali: The UN tribunal trying Genocide fugitives has been ordered to close by December 2010 but the Obama administration has hinted that it is prepared to finance the court beyond this period, RNA reports.

The US wants the court given as much time as it needs to complete trails
Considering the “trouble” the ICTR has had in “transferring [case] to Rwanda”, according to Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp, the United States believes that the court should be given time to complete its work.

“…they have a number of very important cases that are very close to judgment where trials have been completed, and they’ll soon be in about a half a dozen cases that are yet to commence. It looks like it’s a situation where most of their – they’ll probably be finishing their trials in 2010 and their appeals thereafter,” he told reporters in Washington.

“Well, there – we have supported a reasonable completion strategy and want to make sure that they complete their work and achieve accountability there, and we’ve supported budgets that allow for a longer period of this phase-out.”

The comments of Mr. Rapp, a former top prosecutor at the Tanzania-based tribunal could indicate a shift in some quarters within the UN Security Council which demanded a closure of the court – but again extended its tenure in July.

The extension followed concerns raised by the tribunal President, Justice Dennis Byron, before the UN Security Council in December, last year that not all trials would be completed by the previous deadline of December 2009. This was the second extension granted to the ICTR following that of December, 2008.

Justice Byron also reminded that the closing strategy may be affected if the 13 fugitives were to be arrested. At least four of them, he said, must be tried by ICTR.

The court chief prosecutor Bubacar Jallow has unsuccessfully tried to transfer some cases to Rwanda as judges blocked any such moves on grounds of fears the suspects may not get fair trails here. Government and Prosecution are again working on making further improvements in the country’s judicial apparatus to develop assurances of fair trial and the availability of witnesses and defense and independence if cases are transferred to Rwanda.

In addition to the “difficult issue” of how to deal with those fugitives still awaiting trail at the tribunal detention facilities, Mr. Rapp says the “ICTR still has a dozen fugitives” still at-large.

On the conflict in DR Congo, the top war crimes envoy said the United States wants former rebel General Bosco Ntaganda arrested and handed to the International Criminal Court for trail. General Ntaganda has been indicted by the ICC but remains a senior commander in the Congolese army following a shaky peace deal that saw his rebel forces integrated.

“…we want to see, if they’re guilty of these defenses, that they’re imprisoned”, said Rapp. “And so it’s very much our policy that the ICC succeed in those cases.”

However, Ambassador Rapp said the Congo needs to do more to put up national systems which will supplement the ICC to deal with the raging rape cases and other abuses perpetrated by numerous sides. “…if [the ICC] indicts four or five people in the Congo, that alone won’t solve the problem,” he said.

“There are all these mid-level commanders and others whose units are committing these acts of gender violence. There are the men themselves that are responsible for those acts.”

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