Tribunal for Rwanda genocide to officially close down in Sept.: official

The Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will close down in September 2015 after over 20 years of prosecuting persons who played leading roles in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that claimed the lives of nearly 1 million innocent civilians.

"In preparation for the closure, the Tribunal recently sent home 117 of its 414 staff members," ICTR public information officer Danford Mpumilwa said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mpumilwa said an additional 159 international staff members will be retrenched in 2015.

"Should everything proceed according to schedule, the ICTR will shut down on September 30, 2015," he said.

Mpumilwa said this date has been communicated to both the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.

The ICTR was created by the UN Security Council in November 1994 to prosecute perpetrators of the genocide with the first trials starting in 1997.

The ICTR information officer said only one major case remained for the Tribunal to complete after releasing the remaining staff members and close permanently.

"Incidentally, it is the case involving the only woman to be tried for the genocide which shocked the world," he said.

Since it started trials in 1997, ICTR has convicted 61 people, of whom seven are still on appeal, and acquitted 14 others.

Eight people acquitted by the Tribunal and three others who were freed after serving their sentences were still living in a "safe house" in Arusha for lack of a host country. Endi