« Efforts at tracking the remaining eleven fugitives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring countries have been intensified », writes the ICTR president judge Dennis Byron in a report available on the Tribunal website, which will be submitted to the UN Security Council next Thursday.
The ICTR Prosecutor Office and Interpol "have taken the decision to refocus their energies", reads the report which also foreshadows that "other arrests are expected".
On August 10, the former mayor of Kivumu, Grégoire Ndahimana, was arrested. More recently, on October 5, it was Captain Ildephonse Nizeyimana's turn to be caught.
According to ICTR Chief Prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow, most of the eleven fugitives still on the run hide in the Eastern part of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The alleged financier of the genocide, Felicien Kabuga, is believed to be in Kenya, although Kenyan authorities claim he has left their territory.
Judge Byron's report stresses that "several requests from the Prosecutor to Kenyan authorities on the circumstances of the alleged departure have remained unanswered to date".
Moreover, the American Special Envoy for war crimes, Stephen Rapp, asserted in a press conference held in Nairobi on November 16 that Kabuga was still in Kenya.
The two other "big fishes" that the ICTR wants to arrest and try before closing its doors in December 2010 are the former Minister of Defence Augustin Bizimana, alleged to be hiding in DRC, and the former Head of the Presidential Guard Protais Mpiranya, who might be under the protection of Zimbabwean officials.
If they were to be arrested after December 2010, they could still be arraigned by a "residual mechanism" which should be created by the United Nations once the ICTR will have winded down its proceedings.
The eight remaining cases of fugitives could be deferred to the Rwandan or other nations' justice.
ER/GF
© Hirondelle News Agency