International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda meets with UN Secretary-General

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was set up to investigate genocide and other crimes against humanity, including sexual violence and forced marriage during the Rwandan conflict in 1994.Over 800,000 Tutsi minorities were believed to have been slaughtered in a political and  media campaign of hate that rapidly spread throughout the country.

This is the second such tribunal set up to investigate war crimes. The first being the Nuremberg trials.

So far, 79 government officials, media and business people including the former Prime Minister of Rwanda have been convicted to life imprisonment or lesser sentences. The ICTR is currently investigating 23 cases and should have concluded its work last year, but due to budget restrictions and staff concerns on salary extensions, the work of the tribunal has slowed down. Many staff members at the Town Hall meeting expressed deep concern to the Secretary-General about future job opportunities once the Tribunal shut down.