Ocampo to attend Kigali Prosecutors’ colloquium

KIGALI - The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague, Netherland, Luis Moreno Ocampo, is expected to grace the 5th International Prosecutors’ Colloquium that opens in Kigali today. This was confirmed yesterday by Alphonse Hitiyaremye, the Deputy Prosecutor General, who said last evening that Ocampo was expected to arrive in Kigali this morning. When contacted, Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga said that the high level forum of prosecutors from across the world would discuss international justice. “This is a good forum for prosecutors to discuss the way forward for justice around the world,” Ngoga said yesterday. The three-day colloquium to be hosted in Rwanda was supposed to be held in Tanzania where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is headquartered. But according to a source in the ICTR’s Kigali liaison office, it was shifted to Rwanda on the request of the tribunal’s Chief Prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow. The ICTR is a UN-backed court that was established to try key masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Organised by ICTR, the colloquium has attracted several high profile international prosecutors including Ocampo’s deputy, Fatou Bensouda, and the co-prosecutor of Cambodia’s Khamer Rouge Tribunal, Chea Leang and her two deputies. Other senior prosecutors to attend include Jallow and the acting Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Joseph Kamara. The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, United Nations Special Court for Lebanon and US diplomats for war crimes will also attend. The colloquium which is an annual rotational meeting did not take place last year and the previous year had been held in Cambodia. With this year’s theme “International Criminal Justice; lessons from the past and reflection to the future” the colloquium aims at discussing challenges in justice. The colloquium is held in countries where the international courts have been set. Ends

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Ocampo to attend Kigali Prosecutors’ colloquium