Category: Rwanda

Comment – on Louise Arbour and Rwanda

This comment, giving links to some very interesting articles about the UN, the U.S., and Rwanda, came in this week from johnjohn — it was attached to one of our posts from 2007 here , and it reads:

“re: Louise Arbour & War crimes (hers),
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041708D.shtml”

So, turning to the link mentioned, here , we found, among other things this accusation:
“In 1997, Ms. Arbour is said to have been informed by her chief of investigations, Australian Michael Hourigan and his team, including FBI agent Jim Lyons and Canadian police officers assigned to their unit that it was the RPF who had shot down the plane and massacred all those people. ‘But instead of indicting Paul Kagame and the RPF men who had murdered all those people she ordered Hourigan to come to The Hague where she told him to kill the investigation and to burn his notes’, says Mr. Black. ‘This makes her an accessory to mass murder and a war criminal’.”

Louise Arbour has apparently just re-announced her retirement (originally announced in early March) as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, effective at the end of her mandate on 30 June.

Carla del Ponte to stay as Prosecutor for Former Yugoslavia until end of year

The UN Spokesperson told journalists at UNHQ/NY on Friday that “The Security Council extended the terms of the current prosecutors for the two international tribunals in back-to-back formal meetings today. By a unanimous vote, the Council extended Hassan Jallow’s term as Prosecutor for the Rwanda Tribunal by four years. Carla Del Ponte, the Prosecutor of the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, was extended for a final period ending this 31 December. Her extension was approved with 14 votes in favour and Russia abstaining”.
This UN Daily Briefing transcript is here.

Carla Del Ponte, a former Swiss prosecutor from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland who had a reputation for toughness in going after Mafia-linked crime in Switzerland, has been rather less successful in her role as Prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia. Yes, Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of the fomer Yugoslavia, was eventually captured and put on trial — but died before any verdict was in, so the trial was discontinued, and his victims feel deprived of full justice.
Continue reading Carla del Ponte to stay as Prosecutor for Former Yugoslavia until end of year