NEW YORK - The UN Security Council this week extended the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for another year till December 31, 2009.

The ICTR was due to close at the end of 2008. However, in his recent report about its Completion Strategy, Dennis Byron, the President of the ICTR, had asked the Security Council for a one-year extension such that the court could clear its trials.

In a document released by the Security Council after the 111th plenary session of the UN and the 62 General Assembly in New York, the ICTR was allowed one more year.

This was after UN Secretary General had approved the request of the ICTR to extend the contracts of Trial Chamber judges. Most employees of the ICTR have their contracts ending on December 31, 2008.

The extension, Byron stated, was because the ICTR had "faced new developments beyond the control of the Tribunal.” 

He cited the recent arrests as one of the reasons for extending the ICTR mandate by a year.

"Two accused were arrested at the end of 2007 and one in early 2008. Such events have an impact on the date by which trials can be completed.” He added that among the recent arrests are three high level cases which can only be tried by the Arusha-based Tribunal.

The calendar of the ICTR demonstrates that seven permanent judges and eight interim judges (non-permanent) can complete all the remaining cases, including the three new ones, by end of November 20, 2009.

The ICTR was formed in 1994 but began trial procedures in 1997. Since then the court has indicted 91 persons accused to have prepared and carried out the 1994 Rwandan Genocide which claimed close to one million innocent citizens. 

The court has so far completed 35 trials, has 23 suspects in detention in Arusha and is still tracking down at least 13 fugitives headed by Felicien Kabuga believed to be living in neighboring Kenya.

The ICTR is estimated to have cost US $1 billion by the end of 2007 and Byron said the financial cost of extending the contracts of Trial Chamber judges alone would total up to US$1.5 million.

The Rwandan Representative at the UN expressed dissatisfaction at the decision to extend the ICTR mandate.

He said that instead of extending the mandate of judges, efforts and resources should be directed at further improving Rwanda’s capacity to deal with cases referred by the Tribunal to its national courts where improvements had been modeled by the Tribunal. 

The ICTR has already denied the transfer to Rwanda of three cases involving Yusuf Munyakazi, Gaspard Kanyarukiga and Ephrem Hategekimana.

The Security Council also approved Byron’s request to extend the terms of office of Trial Chamber judges until December 31, 2009, and those of the Appeals Chamber until December 31, 2010.

Ends