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While addressing the UN Security Council in New York, US on Monday, the Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga expressed fears over the current discovery by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) chief prosecutor, Boubakar Jallow, to transfer convicts and cases to the French jurisdiction.

“My Government has serious concerns with this, principally because well-known fugitives continue to live in that country (France) with impunity. We intend to raise this issue with appropriate authorities at the highest level,” the prosecutor general said.

France has always been reluctant to help apprehend the Rwanda Genocide suspects still at large on its country. The fugitives include former First Lady Agathe Habyarimana and Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by Rwandan courts of law.

Rwanda also accuses France for taking part in the Genocide.

“We are appealing to the Council to take urgent measures to ensure that indictees do not evade justice,” said the prosecutor general as he urged the Security Council to combine forces with Rwanda in apprehending fugitives that are spread in numerous UN member states. He also added that the ICTR completion strategy shouldn’t be an exit strategy for the commitments of the international community to ensure that these fugitives are brought to justice, either by the Tribunal before the end of 2008 or in national jurisdictions after 2008.

He said that Rwanda is willing to take up the recent move by the ICTR prosecutor concerning the transfer of suspects to Rwandan jurisdiction, saying that Kigali is set in this regard.

“The Rwanda Government and the (ICTR) Prosecutor have made remarkable progress with respect to referral of cases,” he said with an example of the organic law No.11/2007 that was promulgated to govern all legal matters pertaining to referral of cases to Rwanda.

In recent times, the ICTR prosecutor moved a motion to have the case of one Fulgence Kayishema transferred to Rwanda. Kayishema is still at liberty, but according to sources, Jallow is preparing another motion to transfer three suspects who are in detention at the ICTR detention facility though the identities of those people are still unknown. So we call upon the Security Council to back Rwanda’s bid to have convicted suspects serve their sentences in the country.

“Rwanda believes that the ICTR convicts must serve their sentences in Rwanda where they committed the crimes and where they should be seen serving their sentences,” Martin Ngoga said. In order to try the masterminds of the Rwanda Genocide, the UN Security council established the ICTR, an ad hoc tribunal located in Arusha, Tanzania 1994.

With a budget of millions of dollars, the tribunal has completed only 33 cases with five acquittals in almost 13 years and the court reportedly spent an astounding $31million which is an approximation of Frw17 billion on each of these cases.

By Nakawooya Grace