• Speaks out on the issue of Archives at the ICTR

HUYE- The decision to force Kenya to reveal the whereabouts of Felicien Kabuga, a key Genocide suspect and alleged financier of the 1994 Genocide, solely rests with the Security Council, Roland Amoussouga, the Senior Legal Advisor, Chief External Relations and Strategic Planning and Spokesman of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), has said.

Speaking to reporters during the launch of the ICTR Youth Sensitisation Project in the district on Thursday, Amoussouga said that the ICTR had requested Kenya to produce all relevant information pertaining to the Genocide fugitive, who the court strongly believes was in the Country, but there was no satisfactory level of cooperation.

"In June and December last year, the Prosecutor and the President of the Tribunal made a presentation before the Security Council and reported that there was no satisfying level of cooperation given to the ICTR by Kenya on the issue of Kabuga,” said Amoussouga.

"The Prosecutor was asking the Kenyan government to produce all the relevant information on the exit of Kabuga from Kenya because it alleged that Kabuga had left the country. So the Prosecutor simply asked Kenya to give him the information on when and how Kabuga left and where he went.

"Those answers were never forthcoming and the Prosecutor reported back to the Security Council in December and is still waiting for Kenya to come clean,” he added.

Amoussouga said that the last possible stage was for the Prosecutor of the ICTR requesting through the voice of the Presidency of the ICTR, for a special resolution to be taken against Kenya.

"It is only the Security Council that is empowered to take coercive measures to compel Kenya to cooperate as the ICTR Prosecutor is asking them. We haven’t yet reached that stage, but it will not be impossible to contemplate such a stage on the part of the Prosecutor and the Presidency of the ICTR during investigations of the Security Council on the issue of Kabuga,” he said.

The ICTR has indicted 92 people for their alleged role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that claimed over 1 million people, 85 of these have been arrested while 11 still remain at large.

"The key challenge that we face is the apprehension of the remaining 11 suspects who are still at large and have been indicted by the ICTR,” said Amoussouga.

"It is our hope that member states will cooperate with us so that we can arrest them and try them during the tenure of ICTR’s mandate. But in the event that we do not get them, we remain committed to put in place a mechanism that will take care of all this”.

Ends