USD 8M UN OFFICE OPENS IN KISONGO

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunal (MICT), which succeeded the recently disbanded UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), has a new home away from the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) which previously hosted both of them.

The USD 8.8 million new premises located at Lakilaki area near the Arusha airport along the Dodoma road were officially opened by the vice president Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan last week.

During the event which attracted dignitaries from within and outside the country, Tanzania was praised for her efforts in the on-going hunt for fugitives of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

MICT prosecutor Serge Brammertz said besides hosting the United Nations facility, the country was keen to see those behind the horrific massacres are brought to book.

"We will ensure all the remaining suspects are apprehended and prosecuted", he said at the weekend during the official opening of the new premises for the tribunal which took over the activities of ICTR.

He added that at least six fugitive suspected to be the masterminds of the killings in which over 800,000 were hacked to death are still on the run. Once apprehended they would be brought to Arusha to face the full wrath of the law, he explained.

 A special representative of the UN secretary general sent to the event Miguel Soares said the tribunal was open to try other genocide fugitives from other flashpoints in Africa.

The vice president affirmed that Tanzania was committed to support the tribunal undertake its mission. The minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Dr. Augustine Mahiga said the tribunal would be permanently stationed in Arusha.

Until recently MICT was hosted at AICC Arusha as was ICTR which began its operations in the mid 1990s.

Since it started trials in 1997 until its closure in December last year, ICTR had convicted 61 people and acquitted 14 others, of whom only six have found countries to host them because they feared returning to their home country, Rwanda, for fear of reprisals.

The remaining are still homeless after being freed and are living in a 'safe house' in Arusha on special permits from the UN. They are not allowed to travel out of Arusha, one reason being that they don't possess traveling documents.
ICTR was set up by the United Nations Security Council through Resolution No. 955 of November 8th 1994 to hunt down the fugitives of the Rwanda genocide earlier in the year in which nearly one million people were massacred, many of them Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Among the fugitives still on the run is Felicien Kabuga, a former Rwandan businessman who has a $ 5 million price tag placed on his head. He is said to be one of the masterminds of the genocide which was triggered by the killing of former Rwanda president Juvenal Habyarimana.

The  others are  Pheneas Munyarugarama, Fulgence Kayishema, Charles Sikuwabo, Ladislaus Ntaganzwa, one Ryandikayo and Aloys Ndimbati. Once they are arrested they would also be transferred to Kigali because the Tribunal has closed shop.

The last judgement of ICTR was held on December 14th last year.

Majority of those indicted were high ranking military and government officials, politicians, businessmen as well as religious, militia and media leaders.
At the peak of its business, ICTR employed about 1,500 staff, many of them from outside Tanzania.