PRESS BRIEFING BY PRESIDENT OF RWANDA TRIBUNAL

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY PRESIDENT OF RWANDA TRIBUNAL

Judge Laity Kama, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, told a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon that the Tribunal would, in the very near future, hand down its first decision since its inception in 1994.

It would be the first time that an international criminal tribunal would be applying the 1948 Geneva Convention on the Crime of Genocide, Judge Kama said. There had been positive developments following the problems the Tribunal had faced in the past year, he said, adding that there was now a new environment. "In the very near future, the Tribunal would be handing down its first decision -- a decision that had been long awaited", he said.

Asked when that would be, and the number of defendants involved, Judge Kama said a hearing date had been set for 31 August for the sentencing of Jean Kambanda, who was interim Prime Minister in April 1994, when the accident involving the then President of Rwanda occurred on 7 April. Judge Kama said translation of the judgement into English and French had caused the delay. Judgement in the case involving Jean Paul Akayesu, another official at the time, was also expected.

Responding to questions about the problems the Tribunal had faced, he said they were mainly internal in nature. He recalled the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, which had spoken of mismanagement at the offices of the Tribunal. He said the Secretary-General had taken drastic measures which had involved the replacement of the former registrar and the setting up of an entirely new team in the registry. Since then, there had been considerable improvement in the administration. The Secretary-General had fully supported the Tribunal, which was now funded from the regular budget of the United Nations, and at the same level as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Judge Kama spoke of the logistical and communications problems faced by the Tribunal at its headquarters at Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania. There were now three flights a week to the town, and communications facilities were poor. The Tribunal now had its own website on the Internet. It was beginning to increase its library stock, thanks to the intervention of the Secretary-General, which had resulted in more books from France and Canada.

He told a questioner that the Tribunal had a total of about 35 very important detainees at its detention facility at Arusha. They included the former prime minister, several former ministers, colonels, and businessmen who were involved in political matters and were presumed to have organized and participated in the tragedy that took place in Rwanda. After noting the progress made by the Tribunal, the Security Council had recognized the need for the speedy trial of the high number of detainees. The result had been the

creation of a third trial chamber. The question now was equipping the additional chamber and providing it with more legal assistants. The Tribunal was still dealing with some legal issues which needed to be resolved. "Much has been done, but much still remains to be done", he added.

He told a correspondent that he was not in a position to answer questions about the details of the Tribunal's budget and finances, which were the responsibility of its registrar.

A correspondent asked how long it would take to complete the trial of the detainees, considering the length it took to dispose of one case. He said it was precisely because of that problem that the Security Council had established the third trial chamber, and had asked the Tribunal to amend its procedures to speed up the trials. The Tribunal's trial procedures were largely drawn from common law and that did not permit rapid or speedy trials.

He said article 19 of the Tribunal's statute -- the same as in the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal -- called upon the judges to ensure that the trials were fair and speedy. He said the people of Rwanda, who were victims of the abomination, had been calling for speedy justice. But with procedures that focused more on the rights of the accused, rather than those of victims, the Tribunal had been compelled to conduct trials which were much too slow in his opinion. The judges now had more direction in the conduct of trials than earlier before.

With fair trials and accelerated procedures, the Tribunal should be able to adjudicate all the cases in a reasonable period of time, he said. He noted that the terms of the judges would expire in May 1999, and those would have to be renewed. Three new judges would have to be elected to bring the number to nine. According to the Tribunal's statute, the Security Council would have to select from a list of 18 to 27 judges submitted to the General Assembly. To his great surprise, by 4 July only five candidates had been nominated by Governments for the Rwanda Tribunal compared with the many more for the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal. He had been informed that the number had since risen to nine. A new deadline had been set. He told correspondents that the President of the Security Council had informed him that renewed efforts would be made to sensitize governments about the need to provide candidates.

A correspondent asked whether a number of experienced defence lawyers were available to handle cases on behalf of accused persons and how they were compensated. Judge Kama said each accused had the right to a lawyer, and those without any were provided counsel by the Tribunal. The Tribunal's statute provided for that right, which was also enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Increasingly, account was being taken of the preference of the accused for a particular counsel. The idea of co- defence lawyers was also being considered. The Tribunal had set standards for defence lawyers, who, he said, were handsomely paid.

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