PRESS CONFERENCE BY PROSECUTOR-GENERAL OF RWANDA

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PROSECUTOR-GENERAL OF RWANDA

Failing to bring to justice the hundreds of Rwandan genocide leaders who remained at large would be a failure not only of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), but of the United Nations in general, Gerald Gahima, Prosecutor-General of Rwanda, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning. 

He said the lack of an adequate plan to bring those fugitives in after the ICTR wound down its activities was among Rwanda’s concerns about the Tribunal’s so-called completion strategy.  Last week he had expressed those concerns to the General Assembly and the Security Council as those bodies considered the plans by the ICTR and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to begin winding down their investigations and hearings.

Tens of thousands of genocide participants were living outside Rwanda and the list of some 350 leaders among them should be a focus of the international community, he said.  They were spread over many countries, including both Congos, much of French-speaking West Africa, Belgium and France.  There were no extradition treaties among African States, or between Rwanda and many other States, so it was crucial to have some sort of effective, continuing mechanism to deal with the problem.

Another major concern about the completion strategy, he said, was the financial consequences of transferring some 30 lower- and mid-level cases to Rwandan domestic courts.  Rwanda had accepted responsibility for the cases, but adjudicating them in a way consistent with the Tribunal would incur great expense.  For example, witnesses from abroad may have to be brought in and expatriate prosecutors and investigators might be needed.  Rwanda should be provided with financial assistance for those purposes, he said, noting that a donor conference was planned for The Hague to deal with the referral of lower-level cases to Bosnian domestic courts from the ICTY.  He could not understand why similar arrangements were not being made for Rwanda.  “We are trying to get the international community to look at our case and to treat us equally.”

In response to a question about the competence of the Rwandan courts to try those cases, he said they had already tried some 6,000 suspects, and community courts called “Gacaca” had been set up to deal with suspects in situ.  The legal system was certainly competent to receive the cases; if there was no financial assistance forthcoming, the 30 referred cases would simply be put into the pool of regular cases awaiting trial.  “We are prepared to deal with them either way”, he emphasized.

Responding to another question, he said that the problem of genocide suspects working for the ICTR persisted.  He had recommended the establishment of an independent commission to investigate the situation and make proposals to rectify it.  He had also proposed, to the Security Council and the General Assembly, the creation of a vetting system to ensure that no suspects were hired in the future.

Replying to a final question, he said that many countries were still not cooperating in handing over suspects to the Tribunal and that the entire international community must become much more active in bringing to justice those most culpable of committing atrocities.  He recalled that throughout the genocide, the international community had sat around the Security Council table with its perpetrators.  “We still remember the shortcomings of the international community in stopping the genocide in 1994 and we expect it to do better this time around”, he said

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