Security Council mulls 2 prosecutors for Rwanda, former Yugoslavia tribunals

The Security Council today heard a briefing from the prosecutor for the United Nations war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia as it met behind closed doors to mull the possibility of creating separate prosecutor's offices for the two courts.

In remarks to reporters following the meeting, the Council's President for August, Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe of Syria, said the 15-member body had not yet reached a conclusion, but he expected that a decision would be made next week after a draft resolution is tabled and discussed at the expert level.

The Council had invited Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte to brief it on the workings of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was set up by the Council in 1993 and is based in The Hague, and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), established the following year and headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania.

"The trend of the Council was to support mainly the proposal of the Secretary-General [Kofi Annan] to split or separate the two courts, Rwanda and Yugoslavia," Ambassador Wehbe said of the consultations following Ms. Del Ponte's briefing. "This is in a way aiming to enhance the work of the two courts."

Ms. Del Ponte, who also spoke to the press at UN Headquarters in New York after the meeting, said she was invited by the Council to present the experience she collected in four years as prosecutor of both tribunals. "There is absolutely no reason to split the two tribunals with two different prosecutors," she said.

Asked if she was looking to keep both jobs, she said that she was not after a personal matter, but rather to inform the Council of her experience as it is "important that the Council decision is taken after knowledge of the situation." She did not get into the debate of whether or not to separate the tribunals, she added.

In response to whether she would accept a four-year contract as Prosecutor of the Yugoslav tribunal alone, Ms. Del Ponte said the Secretary-General asked her the same when they met two weeks ago and she indicated that she would indeed stay on in the event of a split.

"I am very, very attached to what we have done for ICTY and for ICTR. But If the Security Council decides to split, I hope to stay on ICTY as prosecutor," she said. "We have, as you know, important ongoing trials and it is my responsibility to conduct and to finish these trials."