UN to get update on Kabuga today

NAIROBI - The United Nations Security Council will today be briefed on Kenya’s degree of cooperation in the arrest of Genocide fugitive Felicien Kabuga. Responding to questions from reporters yesterday in Nairobi, the Spokesperson of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Roland Amoussouga said the Prosecutor will give a report on how compliant Kenya has been in efforts to arrest Kabuga. ICTR Chief Prosecutor Boubakar Jallow recently reported the Kenyan Government to the Security Council for non compliance towards ensuring Kabuga’s arrest. The ICTR President and the Prosecutor meet at the New York-based UN headquarters every six months to brief the Security Council on the status of Genocide suspects’ cases. The Security Council established the Tanzania-based court in 1994 following the Tutsi genocide in which over one million people were brutally murdered. Referring to the recent aborted move to arrest Kabuga at Nairobi’s Runda estate, Amoussouga said that the ICTR welcomes every effort the Kenyan government is putting in tracking and arresting the prime Genocide suspect. “I prefer not to divulge into details of Kabuga’s arrest, let us wait for the report the prosecutor will present to the UN Security Council tomorrow (today),” Amoussouga told reporters who wanted to know how far the arrest efforts had gone. He emphasized that the ICTR has not lost hope on the future arrest of Kabuga, saying that the tracking team is zooming in on all persons and countries that are believed to be cooperating with Kabuga. During the conference, Amoussouga also briefed journalists of next week’s judgment of Theoneste Bagosora, the former Director of Cabinet in the Ministry of Defence during the Genocide and that of Protais Zigiranyirazo, who was a brother-in-law of President Habyarimana and an alleged member of the ‘Akazu’ group. Bagosora was among the most influential politicians in the country in the run up to the Genocide and is accused to have summoned the meeting that established the transition government that executed the Genocide against the Tutsis. The ICTR spokesman referred to the judgment as historic and ground-breaking, saying Bagosora is the one the prosecution believes was the chief mastermind of the 1994 Genocide. On transfer of prisoners to designated States for the enforcement of their sentences, Amoussouga said that between December 3 and 7, the ICTR transferred nine convicts to Mali. Those transferred recently include Hassan Ngeze and Ferdinand Nahimana, the former media practitioners who were respectively sentenced to 35 and 32 years. He said that fifteen persons are currently serving their sentences in Mali and that additional convicted persons are expected to be transferred to other designated states. The designated states are those that have signed a memorandum of understanding with the tribunal to enforce ICTR convicts’ sentences and they include; Rwanda, Swaziland, Benin, Sweden and France. Ends

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UN to get update on Kabuga today