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STORY: UN / ICTY AND ICTR
TRT: 2.40
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 12 JUNE 2013, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
12 JUNE 2013, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Hassan B. Jallow, Prosecutor International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UN-ICTR):
“Its work will only really be done when all the fugitives have been arrested and brought to justice, whether at the Residual Mechanism or in national courts. And in respect of both, the three that are under the mandate of the Mechanism and the six that continue to be under the mandate of Rwanda. The Mechanism is committed to support and supplement Rwandan efforts at tracking the six fugitives whose cases have been transferred to that jurisdiction and the cooperation of all member states is critical for this struggle and for insuring accountability.”
5. Med shot, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Vagn Joensen, President International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UN-ICTR):
“The ICTR has sought to contribute to the process of reconciliation in Rwanda by helping to restore a sense of justice and playing a role in development of a lasting peace in the Great Lakes region. Rebuilding this sense of justice has paved the way for moving past the events of 1994; the Tribunal has helped ensure that these events are never forgotten through its outreach and capacity building initiatives and we recognise the need to ensure that the Tribunal's records are readily accessible to the people of Rwanda for posterity.”
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Serge Brammertz, Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (UN- ICTY):
“As we enter the ICTY's 21st year of operations, the thousands who survived crimes committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia should be foremost in our minds. For them the passage of 20 years has little meaning. The crimes they lived through, and the crimes that took away their loved ones, are ever present and we must redouble our efforts to facilitate redress for them.”
9. Med shot, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Theodor Meron President, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (UN- ICTY):
“I deeply regret these delays. But I hasten to remind the Council that many of the factors leading to these delays are not uncommon to judicial and criminal proceedings the world over. More importantly, while unexpected developments may give rise to delays in any criminal case, the impact of these developments on the efficient completion of proceedings is magnified by the unique situation and mandate of the Tribunal.”
11. Wide shot, Security Council
With nine men linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda still on the run, the Prosecutor who would help to try them is today (12 June) urging Member States to cooperate with the United Nations war crimes tribunal and its successor body to track down and arrest the fugitives.
Justice Hassan Bubacar Jallow, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunal told the Security Council that the work of the Tribunal “will only really be done when all the fugitives have been arrested and brought to justice, whether at the Residual Mechanism or in national courts.”
Jallow noted that three of those fugitives are under the mandate of the Residual Mechanism and said it is “committed to support and supplement Rwandan efforts at tracking the six fugitives whose cases have been transferred to that jurisdiction and the cooperation of all member states is critical for this struggle and for insuring accountability.”
As the Tribunal comes close to completing its work, the President of the Tribunal, Vagn Joensen, told the Council that in the almost 20 years since its inception, the ICTR “has sought to contribute to the process of reconciliation in Rwanda by helping to restore a sense of justice and playing a role in development of a lasting peace in the Great Lakes region.”
He added that “rebuilding this sense of justice has paved the way for moving past the events of 1994; the Tribunal has helped ensure that these events are never forgotten through its outreach and capacity building initiatives and we recognise the need to ensure that the Tribunal's records are readily accessible to the people of Rwanda for posterity.”
Based in Arusha, Tanzania, the ICTR was set up after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed during a span of three months beginning in April 1994.
The Security Council has urged both the ICTR and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to conclude their work by the end of 2014.
It set up the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in December 2010 and mandated it to take over and finish the remaining tasks of the two courts when they are closed after their mandates expire. The ICTR branch of the Residual Mechanism began its functions on 1 July 2012 in Arusha, while the branch for ICTY will start this coming July in The Hague.
Also addressing the Council, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (UN- ICTY) said “as we enter the ICTY's 21st year of operations, the thousands who survived crimes committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia should be foremost in our minds.”
He said for them “the passage of 20 years has little meaning” and called on the Council to “redouble our efforts to facilitate redress for them.”
The ICTY’s President, Theodor Meron, regretted the delays the Tribunal has faced. He said “many of the factors leading to these delays are not uncommon to judicial and criminal proceedings the world over” but “the impact of these developments on the efficient completion of proceedings is magnified by the unique situation and mandate of the Tribunal.”
The Security Council was holding its semi-annual debate on the ad hoc international criminal tribunals.
The main issue of discussion was the work of the tribunals and their completion strategy and on the work of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, which was established by the Council on 22 December 2010 to carry out a number of essential functions of the ICTY and ICTR after the completion of their respective mandates.
