Rwandan Senate Report Slams Genocide Tribunal

Rwanda's senate on Thursday released a report fiercely critical of the record of the U.N.-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, saying the body had been "inefficient and incompetent".

The report from the Rwandan senate comes just a month before the central African nation marks the 20th anniversary of the genocide, which saw at least 800,000 people, overwhelmingly ethnic Tutsis, murdered by Hutu extremists.

The Arusha, Tanzania-based ICTR was set up in late 1994 to try the alleged masterminds behind the genocide, and has heard around 50 cases. The body is in the process of wrapping up the final appeals.

"The real innovations accomplished by the ICTR cannot allow us to forget the obvious administrative and judicial shortcomings that are characteristic of the weaknesses of an international justice system that has not shown its authority," the Rwandan senate report said.

It said the tribunal had only "a mixed record in the eyes of Rwandans", had made "questionable acquittals", was slow despite being well-funded and had handled witnesses poorly.

"The ICTR has the unfortunate reputation of being inefficient and incompetent," the report said.

Among the contested acquittals were that of Protais Zigiranyiarazo, the brother-in-law of president Juvenal Habyarimanan whose assassination in 1994 marked the start of the genocide. Zigiranyiarazo was condemned to 20 years in jail for genocide but freed on appeal in 2009.

"There are some positive aspects" of the ICTR, said Jean-Damascene Bizimana, the head of the senate commission that presented the report. "But the failings are far more numerous than the positive aspects."

In 2012 Rwanda closed its Gacaca grassroots courts, set up in 2001, that have judged the bulk of the people suspected of taking part in the genocide.

These courts have put nearly two million people on trial, convicting 65 percent of them, according to official statistics.