UK Foreign Minister visits ICTR

ARUSHA - British Foreign Office Minister, Henry Bellingham, visited the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), on Tuesday, where he held talks on the tribunal’s completion strategy with senior ICTR officials. Bellingham held talks with the ICTR President Dennis Byron, ICTR Prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow and the Deputy Registrar Pascal Besnier. According to an ICTR statement, the officials briefed the UK Minister on the current developments at the ICTR and in particular the tribunal’s completion strategy and the establishment of the international residual mechanism for criminal tribunals. The ICTR President has in the recent past said that his highest concern in the tribunal’s completion strategy is the staffing situation. “In 2010, the tribunal lost almost 100 staff members. For the Chambers alone, the number is 19, representing a high percentage of our staffing level”, he said, warning ‘’If the problem is not solved, we cannot exclude further delays in judgments,” Byron said in one of his reports to the UN Security Council. Bellingham hailed the work of the tribunal in promoting international criminal justice and fighting the culture of impunity as well as bringing to justice those who played a leading role in the Genocide in Rwanda. The UK envoy also took time to visit the United Nations Detention Facility (UNDF), where he was taken around and briefed by Saidou Guindo, the facility’s Commander. Bellingham was accompanied by Diane Corner, the British High Commissioner to Tanzania and Nicholas Hopton, head of the British Foreign Office’s International Organisations Department. Ends

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UK Foreign Minister visits ICTR