\nArusha, September 7th, 2005 (FH) - Two former senior Rwandan officials who were acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Wednesday accused the tribunal of \u201cnot doing enough\u201d to secure a host country for them.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe minister of transport and communications Andre Ntagerura and the former Pr\u00e9fet (Governor) of Cyangugu (south-western Rwanda), Emmanuel Bagambiki were acquitted February 25, 2004.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nSince then, they have been kept in a \u201csafe house\u201d in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha because they have failed to find a country to take them in.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe believe that the Registrar has not done all in his power to supplement our lawyers\u2019 efforts in finding us a host country\u201d, the two said in a letter seen by Hirondelle News Agency.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe demand that the Registrar finds us a host country and that our rights to freedom be fully exercised\u201d, they added.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe Registrar and his office have done all they could. Lawyers of the two acquitted people are aware of the fact\u201d, replied Roland Amoussouga, spokesman of the ICTR.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cNegotiations are going on with the governments of the countries that they stated they wanted to go to, but nothing tangible has come up\u201d, he explained.\n<\/p>\n
\nAccording to Amoussouga, the problem is that \u201cstates have no obligations to receive people acquitted by the ICTR. The issue is not mentioned anywhere in the statutes of the tribunal\u201d, although states have a duty to cooperate with the tribunal in the arrest and transfer of suspects wanted by the tribunal.\n<\/p>\n
\nOn the day he was released, Bagambiki had stated his wish to rejoin his wife who lives in Belgium, where she has become a citizen. His request was turned down, and he has appealed.\n<\/p>\n
\nAccording to reliable sources who wished to remain anonymous, Ntagerura had asked to go to France, where the first person to be acquitted by the ICTR, Ignace Bagilishema, is living.\n<\/p>\n
\nKN\/ER\/AT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, September 7th, 2005 (FH) - Two former senior Rwandan officials who were acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Wednesday accused the tribunal of \u201cnot doing enough\u201d to secure a host country for them. The minister of transport and communications Andre Ntagerura and the former Pr\u00e9fet (Governor) of Cyangugu (south-western Rwanda), Emmanuel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-23142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n