The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Tuesday urged the international community to cooperate with the United Nations war crimes tribunal and its successor body for capturing the remaining nine fugitives linked to the 1994 genocide in the African nation.
At a press conference at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, Justice Hassan Bubacar Jallow, Prosecutor of the ICTR and the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunal, reiterated the U.N. call on Member-States "to live up to their obligations to cooperate with the [residual mechanism], and the tracking and the arrest of these fugitives."
Jallow also urged the fugitives to turn themselves in and stand trial in "very transparent and impartial" judicial processes, saying: "There is no time limit to the prosecution of these cases. Your hiding does not pay off. The mechanism will not relent."
Based in Arusha, Tanzania, the ICTR was set up after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed during a span of three months beginning in April 1994. The U.N.-backed tribunal has since indicted some 93 people, all of whom were arrested with the exception of the nine men who are still on the run.
Incidentally, the 15-member U.N. Security Council has urged both the ICTR and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to conclude their work by the end of 2014.
The Council set up the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in December 2010 and mandated it to take over and finish the remaining tasks of the two courts when they are closed after their mandates expire. The ICTR branch of the Residual Mechanism began functioning in July 2012 in Arusha, while the branch for ICTY will start this coming July in The Hague.
Members of the Security Council had emphasized that establishing the Residual Mechanism was essential to ensure that the closure of ICTR and the ICTY "does not leave the door open to impunity for the remaining fugitives and for those whose appeals have not been completed."
"The ICTR has concluded the trial phase of its work and is currently focused on management of appeals, and legacy and closing issues," Jallow said on Tuesday.
The Office of Global Criminal Justice - headed by Stephen J. Rapp, Ambassador-At-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice - has offered up to a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any of the nine men.
Noting that the men on the run make every effort to evade the trackers by changing their identities, relocating to different terrains and sometimes assisted by slow cooperation of Member- States, Jallow said: "We are still very optimistic that we will track and find and bring them to justice."
Given that there is no time limit to be prosecuted, the residual mechanism can be activated at any time to try the men. In addition, precautions have been taken to secure evidence against the accused and preserve testimony, if witnesses are no longer available to participate in person at future trials.
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December 19, 2025 15:10 ET U.S. inflation data and interest rate decisions by major central banks were the highlights of this busy week for economics news flow. Employment data and survey results on the housing markets also gained attention in the U.S. In Europe, the European Central Bank and Bank of England announced their policy decisions and macroeconomic projections.