Genocide trials to miss deadline
2007-11-24 20:59
Kampala - A tribunal set up to try
suspects of Rwanda's 1994 genocide will not meet its 2008
deadline to wrap up and 14 fugitives accused of plotting the
slaughter are still in hiding, the court said on Saturday.
Roland Amoussouga, the senior legal adviser of the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), said one
reason some cases would not be completed before the court's
mandate expires was that they were too complicated.
"It's not possible to complete all the cases before the end
of December 2008," Amoussouga told journalists on the sidelines
of a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in
Kampala, Uganda.
The ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania, is prosecuting the architects
of the genocide in which Hutu militants killed an estimated
800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in one of the worst bouts of
bloodletting in Africa's history.
Amoussouga added that 14 fugitives were still hiding in
foreign countries that were being uncooperative in efforts to
track them down.
He gave the example of Felicien Kabuga, a suspect accused of
funding the purchase of machetes used to hack victims to death.
Kabuga is believed to be hiding in Kenya.
"The case ... is pending because even though there are
reports of where he has been seen, there has been no
co-operation to bring him to justice," Amoussouga said.
He declined to name all the countries where suspects were
hiding. Lack of finance had also slowed the tribunal, he said.
Amoussouga said the ICTR had made decisions on 37 of the 76
cases with 29 people sentenced, five acquitted and the rest
still on trial.