Justice Hassan B. Jallow, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR) gave his annual statement to the United Nations Security Council on december 15, 2006 in NewYork.

He spoke of his concerns and the challenges concerning the ability of the ICTR to comply with the completion datelines set by the Security Council.

In a wide-ranging speech, Justice Hassan B. Jallow, dilated on 5 cases that have been completed and gave assurance that the proceeding was steadily and satisfactoly conducted.

He outlined the transfer of the key element in the Rwandan genocide, Michel Bagaragaza to Norway for trial. He explained that the decision was based on the chamber’s view that Norway lacks jurisdiction to prosecute Bagaragaza for the offences for which he was indicted.
“I have now however filed a second request for the transfer of his case to another European country which has agreed to take the case and which in our view can exercise jurisdiction over the offenses in the indictment. A decision is pending on the application”, he indicated.

Justice Hassan B. Jallow said the option of transferring cases to African countries- other than Rwanda- is likely to be viable. “All the African countries which I have approached in this respect- whilst in principle supporting the sharing of this workload - have pleaded capacity and ressource constraints as well as overburdened national judicial systems”, he hinted.

Concerning the case of Felicien Kabuga, one of the top fugitives, he said he has , in the past six months, held continuous consultations with officials of the Kenyan government noting that the Security Council in its Resolution 1503 (2003) had requested Kenya to cooperate with the ICTR in the said matter.

Justice Hassan B. Jallow also spoke of the death penalty which he said, is a major obstacle to the transfer of any case to Rwanda, indicating that it will be abolished not just in relation to the cases of the ICTR, but across the board. “As soon as that is accomplished I shall be requesting the cases of these 17 indictees (twelve at large and 5 in custody) to Rwanda for trial ”, he said.

He concluded by reiterating the ICTR’s commitment to the Action Plan for combating genocide launched by Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide. He added that the tragic event provides the international community today an opportunity to carry on the struggle against impunity.