NEW JUDGES SWORN IN AT RWANDA TRIBUNAL
Press Release
L/2910
NEW JUDGES SWORN IN AT RWANDA TRIBUNAL
19990224 ARUSHA, 23 February (ICTR) -- Three newly elected judges assigned to the Third Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) were sworn in yesterday at the Seat of the Tribunal in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania.Judge Lloyd George Williams (Jamaica and St. Kitts & Nevis), Judge Dionysios Kondylis (Greece) and Judge Pavel Dolenc of (Slovenia) were sworn in by the Tribunal's Registrar, Agwu Ukiwe Okali (Nigeria), representing the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. The ceremony, which took place in the newly constructed Courtroom III of the Tribunal, was attended by the President (Judge Laity Kama of Senegal) and other judges of the Tribunal, Ambassadors and representatives of several diplomatic missions in Tanzania and Rwanda, and representatives of the media.
The Third Trial Chamber was established by Security Council resolution 1165 (1998), following a request to the Secretary-General by the Tribunal authorities with a view to speeding up Trials at the Tribunal. The Tribunal's caseload, already heavy, has grown significantly in recent times as a result of the Tribunal's success in apprehending persons suspected of involvement in the Rwandan genocide. The new judges were elected by the United Nations General Assembly on 3 November 1998.
In his speech at the occasion, ICTR President Laity Kama noted that the twentieth century was not only the century of the worst barbarisms, but also the century during which the fundamental principles of the rights of the human being and of international law were affirmed. "With our participation and the commitment of the international community, the twenty-first century could be the century for the effective enforcement of those rights". (The full text of President Kama's remarks is available at the ICTR website at http://www.ictr.org.)
With the swearing in of the Third Trial Chamber, the ICTR now has a total of 14 judges, three judges serving in each of the three Trial Chambers and five judges serving in the Appeals Chamber, which is shared with the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
For further information, contact Bocar Sy or Danford Mpumilwa, e-mail: public@un.org, tel: 1 212 963 2850 or 255 57 4367-72, fax: 1 212 963 2848 or 255 57 4000/4373, Arusha.
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