An informal working group from the United Nations Security Council has reiterated the UN’s position on the closure of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The UN Security Council in July this year extended ICTR’s mandate for another year, until December 31, 2009. It was initially supposed to close by the end of this year.

‘Yes, the completion strategy is realistic and it was decided by the Security Council. We are still working on its basis,” William Roelants De Stappers, the First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Belgium, and a member of the group told reporters recently.

He added that the tribunal was working with that in mind and doing everything to achieve the planned completion strategy.

The working group was at the ICTR to discuss with the court’s principals issues relating to the residual mechanism and legacy of the UN court.

Residual mechanisms pertain to the handling of cases that ICTR will not have finished by the end of its mandate and a reasonable part of those involved Genocide fugitives still at large.

While fielding questions from the media, Stappers did not divulge details of the findings of his group but only said, "Our technical team had a short but intensive and fruitful visit.”

The group, comprising legal experts from different UN member states, was scheduled to travel to the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia for a similar visit at the close of this week.

Rwanda has consistently said that it recognizes efforts being made by the ICTR to implement Security Council Resolutions 1503 and 1504 relating to the completion of ICTR’s mandate but warned that the closure shouldn’t create an impunity gap.

In a separate interview, the Special Government Representative to the ICTR, Aloys Mutabingwa, said that even when the ICTR closes, Rwanda is committed to continue upholding justice over the 1994 Genocide crimes.

"Justice can still be done even without having an international tribunal. So far, Rwanda for one has been meting out justice for all the years on the crimes committed in 1994 and a huge number of cases have been completed in conventional courts and another huge number completed in Gacaca courts. This is justice rendered,” he said.

Gacaca courts are an indigenous form of restorative justice in Rwanda.

The UN working group visit is the second high profile visit to theICTR in a space of two weeks. Last week, a US Delegation composed of US Deputy Ambassador at Large for War Crimes in the State Department, Milbert D. Shin, also paid a visit to the court. 

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