08.02.07 - ICTR/PROSECUTION - RPF ALLEGED CRIMES : PROSECUTOR TO DECIDE MID 2007

Arusha, February 8 2007 (FH) - The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Hassan Bubacar Jallow (Gambia), will decide by the middle of the year whether or not charges will be brought against members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), now in power in Kigali, for crimes they would have committed in 1994, the ICTR announced on Thursday.« By the middle of the year, the prosecutor will be decide which course of action to take », the newly appointed prosecutor’s spokesman, Timothy Gallimore (US), has announced during a press conference.During his presentation of his annual report to the Security Council in mid-December, Mr. Jallow recalled that “ my office has felt it necessary to carry out further enquiries after our evaluation of the materialrelating to alleged violations of humanitarian law by the RPF. I expect that in 2007, these enquiries should conclude and enable us to decide which way to proceed.”However, Mr. Jallow has always said that he is not competent to investigate the assassination on April 6 1994 of President Juvénal Habyarimana, considered to be the trigger event of the genocide.In a report released last year, a French anti-terrorist judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière, named the former commander of the armed branch of the RPF, the sitting president of Rwanda Paul Kagame, as the main backer of the attack.Kagame, who has always denied having taken part in the attack, recently said on the BBC that he was favorable to an independent investigation on this event.Some defence lawyers at the ICTR ask the tribunal to suspend ICTR proceedings and review all completed cases until war crimes allegedly committed in 1994 by the members of RPF are investigated.The ICTR, located in Arusha in the north of Tanzania, has so far delivered 31 judgements ( 27 convictions and 5 acquittals).All trials should be completed by the end of 2008.ER/AT/MG© Hirondelle News Agency