07.06.11 - ICTR/UN - ICTR URGES STATES TO ACCEPT ACQUITTED PEOPLE

7 June 2011 By

Arusha, June 7, 2011 (FH) -The president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Judge Khalida Khan, told the UN Security Council Monday that absence of formal mechanism to secure support of member states to accept genocide-acquittals, remained a key element in solving their relocation problem.

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"The challenge to relocation is the unfortunate result of the absence of a formal mechanism to secure the support of member states to accept these persons within their territories," she said when drawing the Council's attention to the problem.

According to Judge Khan, the three former genocide suspects, Andre Ntagerura, Brigadier General Gratien Kabiligi and Protais Zigiranyiraso, who were cleared of their charges, remained in the safe houses in the Tanzania's Northern town of Arusha, where the ICTR is based, due to the lack of relocation arrangements.

Ntagerura, former Rwandan Transport Minister, was acquitted in 2006, while ex-senior military officer Kabiligi was freed in 2008 and businessman Protais Zigiranyiraso, a brother-in-law of the late president Juvenal Habyarimana, was cleared in 2009.

In December last year, former ICTR president Denis Byron called upon the international community to urgently resolve the problem, saying if not dealt with in a comprehensive and long-term approach, the interests of justice and the rule of law would not be served.

FK/ER/GF