On July 25, 2001, the UN's Rwanda Tribunal adjourned the trial of former bourgmestre Juvenal Kajelijeli nine days ahead of the scheduled, month-long summer holiday so that Judge Arlette Ramaroson, who was sworn in less than two months ago, could fly home to Madagascar. The Tribunal provided no explanation for Judge Ramaroson's early departure and the Registrar's spokesman Kingsley Moghalu could only say « she had to leave for some reason.

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Four months after his acquittal, the former Rwandan mayor has finally set foot on French soil, where he is out on probation. On October 9, the only defendant to be acquitted by the ICTR tasted his first night of real freedom. Having waited 128 days after his acquittal on June 7, 2001, Ignace Bagilishema bid a final farewell to Arusha on board a commercial KLM flight, with a smile on his face.

The office of the prosecutor intends to present three new witnesses against the former Rwandan Minister, but the case is still lying low in the water. The Kamuhanda case is rickety. The former Minister of Higher Education is being tried before the International Tribunal for Rwanda for his participation in the interim government that ran the country of a thousand hills from April to July 1994. Those three months were characterized by a policy of massive destruction of the Tutsi community. However the legal case has two problematical aspects.

Jean-Paul Akayesu is still on the offensive. Found guilty of genocide, and sentenced to life imprisonment, the former bourgmestre (local chief magistrate) wants to turn his choice of lawyer for the appeals procedure into a legal battle. To this end, he has seized the Appeals Chamber of the matter, and expects the court to categorically thwart the policy conducted by the ICTR's Registrar on the assignment of defence counsels. It is a case behind which a far more sensitive one, the Kambanda case, is concealed.

The Opening of the Ntakirutimana Trial before the ICTR

For the prosecutor, two key legal issues were at stake in the appeals process for the Akayesu and Kayishema/Ruzindana cases. The first concerns war crimes, and the second, concurrent crimes. The June 1 rulings included opinions on the former but not the latter. This is due solely to the way in which the prosecution handled the cases. « Legal Economy »

Anglican Bishop

Samuel Musabyimana is accused of genocide or complicity in genocide, conspiration to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Identity

• Former Secretary-General of the diocese of Butare.
• Bishop of the diocese of Shyogwe.

Proceedings

• On 2 May, Samuel Musabyimana pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges against him. He also complained of « brutality » and the violation of his rights during the arrest on 26 April.

Defence counsel have been appointed for Jean-Paul Akayesu and Jean Kambanda under appeal proceedings undertaken by the two Rwandan defendants sentenced to life imprisonment by the ICTR. However, although the Registry's choice does not seem to have caused difficulties for Kambanda, the former Prime Minister, the same is not true for Akayesu, the ex-bourgmestre of Taba. The convicted man and his sacked lawyer on oneside, and the Tribunal's administration on the other, continue to prepare for war.

The military trial at the ICTR resumed on 18 November with a new face heading up the prosecutor's team. The return of the military trial on 18 November in Trial Chamber at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was marked by upheaval at the prosecutor's office. It signalled the arrival of the American Barbara Mulvaney, who takes over as head of the team in this key ICTR trial; and the final exit - still unofficial - of Chile Eboe-Osuji, who is leaving the case he has worked on for the last few years.