Global Policy Forum

Asking all States to intensify their cooperation with the United Nations war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the Security Council voted today to call on them to complete their investigations by the end of this year and all of their work by 2010. In a resolution passed unanimously, the 15-member Council said the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) must do all they can to meet the completion strategy mapped out in previous Council resolutions. This strategy calls for the tribunals to finish their investigations by the end of this year, finish all trials at the first instance by 2008 and wind up all their work by the end of 2010. The resolution said prosecutors from the ICTR and ICTY should review their caseloads to determine which cases they should proceed with and which cases they should transfer to the domestic justice systems of appropriate nations.

The Council also asked each tribunal to provide it with regular reports - with the first due by 31 May - of what progress it is making towards achieving the completion strategy. The resolution also called on all States to cooperate with the tribunals, especially those which can help bring at-large indictees to the ICTR and ICTY. It named Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republika Srpska within Bosnia and Herzegovina for the ICTY, and it listed Rwanda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of the Congo for the ICTR.