Noting it recently had to freeze recruitment because some Member States had not paid their contributions, the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the Rwandan genocide in 1994 has warned in its annual report that it must be funded properly or it will not meet a Security Council target to complete all trials by 2008.
In the report, submitted to the Council and the General Assembly by the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Judge Erik Møse of Norway, the ICTR recommended that it “continue to receive sufficient resources to enable it to complete its work within the time frames” set by the Council.
Last year, in Resolution 1503, the Council called on the ICTR – as well as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia – to “take all possible measures” to finish its investigations by the end of this year, complete trials by 2008 and wind up all of its work by 2010.
Saying the ICTR is on schedule to meet its completion strategy, Judge Møse asked States to help arrest and transfer the 17 indictees and 16 suspects at large to the tribunals custody in Arusha, Tanzania. But he added: “Some may never be found and others may be dead.”
Between 1 July 2003 and 30 June this year, the ICTR issued five judgments in the trials of nine accused, taking the total number of judgments to 17 (involving 23 accused) since the first trial began in January 1997.
Five new trials, involving 11 accused persons, have also started since July 2003, and the ICTR said it expects to complete these trials by 2005-06. Depending on the progress of individual trials, it is estimated that the ICTR will have completed trials involving 65 to 70 accused persons by 2008.
Kilde: FNs nyhedstjeneste
