November 9, 1999
Assembly appraises progress made by war crimes tribunals - judges describe obstacles
HIGHLIGHT:
Speakers Generally Praise Historic Achievements, Rwanda Dissatisfied with Pace of Proceedings; Croatia Charges Lack of Balance
One of the fundamental issues facing the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was to determine which of the many culpable individuals in that country should be brought to justice in The Hague, Tribunal President Gabrielle Kirk McDonald told the General Assembly this morning.
As the Assembly took note of the reports of the two United Nations war crimes Tribunals - the one for the former Yugoslavia and the one for Rwanda - Judge McDonald reminded Member States that there were not sufficient resources to bring every individual allegedly connected with the atrocities to trial. Difficult choices had to be made. It was the leaders who were charged with instigating the wars, and who now prevented the restoration of peace, who must be tried, she urged.
Judge McDonald and her counterpart, Navenethem Pillay, President of the Rwanda Tribunal, both expressed concern over the length of the Tribunals' proceedings and the resulting time that those accused were spending in pre-trial detention. While a number of steps had been initiated to speed up trials, more must be done to speed up the process. The President of the Yugoslavian Tribunal said she would propose that her colleagues reconsider the option of conditional release of detainees, under certain conditions.
The President of the Rwanda Tribunal urged further administrative reforms. Both stressed that due process required time and resources. Judge Pillay said that it was the quality of the proceedings, not the quantity, that was important.
The representative of Rwanda, however, said that the Rwanda Tribunal's output left his Government with no alternative but to register a vote of no confidence in it. If United Nations tribunals were seen as ineffectual, the international community should reconsider its commitment to creating what would amount to "a permanent version of a temporary failure, and a permanent United Nations failure for Rwanda". Noting that, since its inception, the Tribunal had indicted 48 individuals, only five of whom had been tried and sentenced, he said that Rwanda's own judicial system had rendered more than 20,000 genocide-related indictments. Of those, 17,847 had pleaded guilty, 1,989 had been tried, and 5,760 had been released.
Those trials had been monitored by the international community and been found to conform to the highest international standards, he added.
The representative of Croatia said the report of the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was unbalanced. It presented a distorted picture of Croatia's cooperation and also made offensive characterizations of a political debate on the work of the Tribunal that had been held in the Croatian Parliament. This went beyond the Tribunal's mandate and departed from established practices of United Nations reporting. Nonetheless, he stressed, Croatia would continue to support the work of the Tribunal.
Most speakers, however, pointed to the historic significance of the work of both bodies, which were sending a message that there would be no more impunity for atrocities.
The representative of the United Republic of Tanzania said the Rwanda Tribunal's holding that rape and sexual assault constituted acts of genocide was a groundbreaking interpretation that would have far-reaching significance in cases elsewhere. The representative of Finland (on behalf of the European Union) stressed the Tribunal's responsibilities to victims of sexual crimes, both in terms of ensuring that perpetrators of such acts were held responsible, and in providing special post-trial protection measures to safeguard female witnesses. Statements were also made by the representatives of Norway, Iran, Malaysia, Egypt, Pakistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lesotho, Zambia and Liechtenstein. The Assembly will meet again at 3 p.m. today, to elect four members of the Joint Inspection Unit.
