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African Judges Vie for Two Posts in U.N. Tribunal for Rwanda
Four African judges are vying for two additional posts at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) seated in Tanzania's northern town of Arusha, said the ICTR spokesman on Friday.
Kingsley Moghalu, the spokesman, said that the decision to increase the number of judges from the current nine to 11 was made at a United Nations Security Council meeting on November 30, 2000.
"The four names submitted to the Security Council are Mouinou Aminou (Benin), Frederick Mwela Chomaba (Zambia), Haris Michael Mtegha (Malawi) and Arlette Ramaroson (Madagascar)," he said.
Moghalu disclosed that the U.N. General Assembly will soon meet to decide who will join the ICTR.
The ICTR, created on November 8, 1994 by the U.N. Security Council resolution 955, has the mandate to try persons suspected to be responsible for the genocide and other serious violations of the international humanitarian law committed in Rwanda between January 1 and December 31, 1994.
It also has the mandate to try Rwandan citizens responsible for such violations committed in the neighboring countries of Rwanda during the 100-day massacre which claimed more than 800,000 civilians mostly the ethnic Tutsis.
The ICTR has so far issued 29 indictments against 50 individuals, and a total of 44 indicted individuals are in custody including several former senior cabinet ministers in the Interim Government of Rwanda of 1994, former military commanders, political leaders, journalists and senior businessmen.
The five detainees who have already been convicted by the Trial Chambers of the Tribunal are still held at the Arusha-based UN Detention Facility (UNDF), pending outcome of their appeals, but are kept apart from the other detainees to whom the presumption of innocence applies.
Three of the convicts, namely Jean Kambanda, former Prime Minister of Rwanda, Jean-Paul Akayesu, former Bourgmestre of Taba and Clement Kayishema, former Prefect of Kibuye, have been sentenced to life.
Businessmen Obed Ruzindana and Omar Serushago were sentenced to 25 years and 15 years of imprisonment respectively.
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