"These indictees are residents in France which has jurisdiction over the cases and which has also agreed to receive the cases. We await the decisions on the trial chamber on the requests", indicated Jallow in this speech that the Hirondelle agency obtained a copy on Tuesday. The text does not, however, mention the identity of the people concerned.
Jallow was at the Security Council for a session devoted to the evaluation of the ICTR completion strategy, which must finish by next year its first instance trials.
The Attorney General of Rwanda, Martin Ngoga who represented his country in New York, reacted at once and said himself "surprised" that the ICTR plans to transfer accused to France, a country that Kigali accuses of having played a part in the 1994 genocide.
Jallow, in addition, invited the Security Council to pressure Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to arrest the at large ICTR accused.
"We remain convinced, on the basis of reported information, that Félicien Kabuga, continues to live and to carry out commercial affairs" in Kenya, the Prosecutor declared.
"It is necessary that the Security Council and the members on the UN bring their influence to bear on the government of Kenya for it to live up to its international legal obligations by arresting Félicien Kabuga and handing him over to face justice at the ICTR", stated Jallow.
The ICTR Prosecutor also affirmed that the majority of the 18 accused still at large would be in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Gambian magistrate proposed a broader vision of the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), which would facilitate collaboration between Kinshasa and the ICTR.
Since the beginning of the trials in 1997, the ICTR, based in Arusha, in Tanzania, has rendered 28 convictions and 5 acquittals.
ER/PB/MM
© Hirondelle News Agency
