On December 4, Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor for...

On December 4, Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor for the UN Tribunal trying suspects in the 1994 genocide, arrived in Kigali with hopes of meeting government officials, despite strained relations between Rwanda and the court. The government suspended relations with the Tribunal for Rwanda and initially refused a visa for the chief prosecutor after appellate judges in The Hague, Netherlands, ordered the release of a leading genocide suspect on procedural grounds. On December 3, Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo said Del Ponte had been granted entry because she filed a motion seeking to block the release of Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza. Still, he said Rwandan officials would not meet with her unless the court arrested Barayagwiza again on new evidence that he helped organize the 1994 genocide of more than 1 million minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. Barayagwiza was a former Foreign Ministry official and a leader of the extremist Hutu party that spearheaded the 100-day slaughter. Appeals judges had ordered on November 3 that he be released, saying his rights were violated because he had spent too much time in custody without being charged. The judges suspended Barayagwiza's release from UN detention in Arusha, Tanzania, to consider Del Ponte's motion. Rwanda has asked Tanzania to extradite Barayagwiza if UN authorities release him, and promised not to seek the death penalty if he is tried in Rwanda. The maximum penalty for top genocide suspects in a Rwandan court is death, while the tribunal's is life in prison. The tribunal has 36 suspects in custody.