12.09.07 - RWANDA/ICTR - RWANDA WELCOMES TRANSFER MOTIONS FOR ACCUSED

Arusha, 12 September 2007 (FH) - The representative of the Rwandan government to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Aloys Mutabingwa, welcomed Wednesday the motions aiming at transferring to Rwandan courts three prisoners from the United Nations tribunal.

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Last Friday, the prosecutor of the ICTR, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, filed the motions to transfer to Rwanda Lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana, former businessmen Gaspard Kanyarukiga and Yussuf Munyakazi; all three accused of crimes of genocide.

"It is a good thing for us. Our courts are ready. We will present our arguments to support the prosecutor's requests ", indicated Mutabingwa.

"The genocide was committed by Rwandans against Rwandans in Rwanda. The ideal is that the genocidaires are tried in Rwanda ", insisted the diplomat.

The transfers of certain cases to national courts, including those of Rwanda, form part of the completion strategy of the ICTR, which must finish by next year its first instance trials.

For Mutabingwa, the Security Council, should before this date, vote for "a resolution urging the responsibility of countries to cooperate by sending to Rwanda suspects presently on their territory, whether there is or not an extradition treaty" between these countries and Rwanda.

"It is one of the ways to end to impunity because justice should not end with the closing of the ICTR", estimates the diplomat.

He also invited the ICTR to send the persons definitively convicted to serve their sentences in Rwanda.

Mutabingwa finally estimated that at the closing of the tribunal, its archives should be transferred to Kigali.

ER/PB/MM
© Hirondelle News Agency