The Government’s Special Representative at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Alloys Mutabingwa, has welcomed the appointment of Joseph Masanche, a Tanzanian judge to the tribunal saying he is competent and well respected.

Masanche was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, as an ad-litem (not permanent) judge at the tribunal to fill the gap created by the exit of seven judges at the end of last year.

"Masanche is a judge I know and respect in person for his experience and reputation internationally, I have no doubt about his competence,” Mutabingwa said over the phone yesterday.

The resignation of the seven judges came at a time when the UN mandated tribunal faces a deadline of December this year to have cleared all cases in substance while appeals have until 2010 to have been dealt with. 

Asked whether the appointment will enable the ICTR beat this deadline, Mutabingwa said that beating the deadline has nothing to do with appointing new judges, rather it depends on the nature of cases some of which take long because of their nature especially requiring a long procedure of proving efficacy of evidence produced to court.

Masanche a retired judge in the Tanzanian judiciary served in this sector for 38 years, 19 of which he was a High Court Judge.

Following his appointment, he was immediately assigned two cases which include the  re-trial of Lt Col Tharcisse Muvunyi, a former Commander of the Military Academy (ESO), which starts today and that of Lt Ildephonse Hategekimana, expected to start on 26 January. 

Mutabingwa also revealed that the prosecution would appeal against the ruling in the Military 1 case which acquitted the former director of operations in the Ex-FAR, Gen. Gratien Kabiligi.

The trial sentenced three other former army officers, including the man regarded as the "mastermind” of the Genocide, Col. Theoneste Bagosora, to life imprisonment.

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