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UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22 (AFP) - The UN Security Council decided Wednesday that the international tribunal charged with trying people suspected of acts of genocide in Rwanda will be headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania.
In resolution 977, adopted unanimously, the council designated the Tanzanian city as the headquarters of the tribunal, which will have the authority to try crimes committed between January 1 and December 31, 1994.
It will be concerned with crimes committed not only in Rwanda but also in neighboring countries in cases of human rights violations committed against Rwandan citizens.
The council's decision was adopted with the proviso that the United Nations and Tanzania conclude the appropriate arrangements, the resolution said.
Rwanda's ambassador to the United Nations, Manzi Bakuramutsa, told the council his government would have preferred that the tribunal be headquartered in Kigali. However, it was prepared to cooperate fully with the tribunal based in Arusha, he said.
In a report made public last week, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said it was neither realistic nor appropriate to base the tribunal in Rwanda. Kenya, which also was under consideration, said it could not serve as host for the tribunal.
The tribunal's creation was decided November 8 by the UN Security Council, but its installation is still far from being accomplished.
The six judges to hear the evidence in the initial stages are supposed to be named soon by the UN General Assembly. Once named, they must formally adopt the rules of the tribunal at a special session convened by Boutros-Ghali.
The tribunal's chamber of appeals, composed of five judges and a prosecutor, will have a common structure with the international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which is based in The Hague.
According to a UN commission, between 500,000 and a million Rwandans were killed in the massacres unleashed after the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu killed April 6 in a suspicious plane crash.
Under its statutes, the international tribunal for Rwanda will be only authorized to impose prison sentences, since the death sentence has been barred.
ltl/jm/rl AFP AFP
