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UN Court Worried About Kigali Ties2006-09-14All Africa Global Mediaby Felly Kimenyi The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has greeted reports that Rwanda could cut links with it, with fears that such a development would seriously cripple its activities. Speaking from ICTR offices in Arusha, Tanzania, the tribunal's newly appointed spokesman Everard O'Donnell, said that the move could heavily slow down the pace of the trials just two years to the expiry of its mandate. "If such a thing happens, many things will be derailed here. In particular, the prosecution will be severed a lot because most of the prosecution witnesses come from Rwanda, and without witnesses there would be no trials," O'Donnell, who replaces Dr. Tim Gallimore, said. The one-week ultimatum Rwanda gave ICTR to terminate the contract of Calixte Gakwaya, a genocide suspect working with the tribunal, ended on Tuesday with no official response from the tribunal. State Minister for Cooperation Rosemary Museminali told The New Times on Monday that the government could cease its cooperation with the genocide tribunal should the latter fail to terminate Gakwaya's contract. "Among the alternative decisions is stopping our cooperation with them," said Museminali. The cabinet was yesterday expected to debate and take a decision on the matter which came at a time when relations between the two sides were apparently on the mend. Meanwhile, the tribunal told The New Times that it did not have a hand in Gakwaya's release but admitted it wrote a letter to the Tanzanian authorities in protest over his arrest. "ICTR just sent a copy of the agreement between Tanzania and the UN but we had no direct role in his release. It was only his Tanzanian friends who secured his release," O'Donnell, who doubles as deputy registrar, said. Gakwaya is a defence counsel for Yusuf Munyakazi, one of the genocide suspects incarcerated at the tribunal's detention facility. Rwanda accuses him and seventeen other ICTR employees of participating in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Channel: USHMM: International Law
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