ICTR speaks out on archives

ARUSHA – Following recent speculation in the media that the ICTR might send their archives to Kenya after the court closes down, a senior official at the tribunal has come out to clear the air.According to Bocar Sy, the Arusha-based UN court’s Chief of Press, only administrative archives have been sent to the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The disclosure earlier this week that the tribunal would transfer all archives to Nairobi had triggered criticism among different activists in the country, who maintained that Rwanda is the bonafide destination of these archives. Senior government officials have also requested that the archives be brought to Kigali once the tribunal closes down next year. “All the judicial archives are still here and we have none that have been transferred to Nairobi or any other country,” Sy, told a press conference Thursday. The archives include large records, testimonies and tens of thousands of hours of video-taped court proceedings that have been amassed over the last 15 years of its operations Anonymous sources early this week hinted to The New Times that preparations were in high gear to have the archives transferred to Nairobi, Kenya by next year. But Sy said the decision to transfer the archives is the “prerogative of the UN Security Council and not that of the tribunal.” He however acknowledged that administrative archives in the Office of International Overseas Services (OIOS) had been fully transferred to Nairobi. Pressed to comment on when and where the judicial archives will be transferred, the ICTR head of press said; “I don’t know and no one has an answer.” Sy also commented on the issue of Genocide fugitives still at large and the transfer of recently arrested Genocide suspect Gergoire Ndahimana. He said they were still hunting for the suspects and that they hoped Ndahimana would be transferred to Arusha before end of this week. Ndahimana, who was arrested last week in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is accused of playing a role in organizing the killings of mostly ethnic Tutsis who had sought refugee at the Nyange Parish Church, Western Province. Ends

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ICTR speaks out on archives