HRW urges prosecutions of Rwandan leaders

NEW YORK, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- The Rwandan genocide tribunal still needs to prosecute war crimes allegedly perpetrated by the now-ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front, advocates say.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has done its job in bringing to justice leading figures behind the genocide, but it has so far failed to pursue certain officers of the RPF, Human Rights Watch said in a release issued in New York Monday. The officers, while bringing the 1994 genocide to an end, were alleged to have killed between 25,000 and 45,000 civilians, HRW said.

A declaration by the tribunal's prosecutor, Hassan Jallow, that he has done everything he can to investigate crimes on all sides of the genocide brought a rejoinder from HRW.

"The prosecutor's failure to commit to prosecuting senior RPF officers has undermined his credibility and that of the ICTR," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in the release.

The human rights group said Jallow has repeatedly failed to outline his plans for prosecuting the Rwandan Patriotic Front's alleged crimes before the tribunal's tenure ends at the end of 2010.

Jallow has told the United Nations he does not have enough evidence to prosecute RPF officers, HRW said.