UN Wire

Friday, December 15, 2000

RWANDA: UN Tribunal Plans To Indict Tutsi Officers

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for the first time will indict Tutsi army officers for their involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, said chief war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.

Del Ponte said secret investigations into the role of the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the slaughter of as many as 45,000 Hutus have been under way for a year. Previously, the court had only indicted Hutus and one European who collaborated with them for involvement in the 1994 killings, but now Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who led the RPF, has authorized cooperation with the tribunal, del Ponte said.

However, some Rwandan analysts are suspicious that the tribunal assured Kagame of a limited probe to win his acceptance of the investigations.

"As for cooperating with the tribunal, we are obliged by international law to do so," said Rwandan Prosecutor General Gerald Gahima. "The tribunal is an organ set up by the (UN) Security Council. Rwanda will definitely cooperate with it".