The ICJ said today that the UN should extend the mandate of the International Tribunal on the former-Yugoslavia to the crimes now being committed in Rwanda.
ICJ Secretary-General, Mr. Adama Dieng, who met President Habyarimana in Kigali on 2 April 1994, four days before the assassination of the Rwandan President, said that the question of impunity had been the central theme of their discussion. Anticipating a possible carnage in Rwanda, the late President then requested the assistance of the ICJ in restoring the Rule of Law in Rwanda. He asked that the ICJ send legal experts to the country to investigate human rights abuses and report thereon.
Today, Mr. Dieng spoke before the emergency special session on Rwanda of the UN Commission on Human Rights. He strongly urged the international community to “consider the question of impunity for the crimes being perpetrated in Rwanda as a matter of absolute priority”. He said that “the time has now come to put on trial the authors of crimes against humanity and their accomplices”.
The ICJ reiterated that the establishment of a permanent International Penal Court remains the best solution to put an end, once and for all, and at the global level, to the impunity of perpetrators of such odious crimes. The immense tragedy in Rwanda has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people over the past four weeks.
The ICJ called for the nomination, without delay, of a UN Special Rapporteur to investigate the grave violations of human rights in Rwanda.
