The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals is tracking and prosecuting the fugitives involved in the Rwandan genocide, in which no fewer than 800,000 people were slaughtered, Judge Theodor Meron, President of the mechanism said.

“While the challenges in tracking fugitives are too significant to guarantee a positive outcome, my Office can commit that we will spare no effort.

“The victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda deserve nothing less,” Meron said.

The Rwandan genocide was a mass slaughter of Tutsi by members of the Hutu majority government, spanning the period of April to July, 1994.

Meron further informed the Council that the Residual Mechanism transferred eight convicted persons from the UN Detention Facility in Arusha to enforcement States during the reporting period, including four individuals to Senegal and four to Benin.

The Residual Mechanism aimed to complete the transfer of all convicted persons under the Mechanism’s jurisdiction in Arusha and in The Hague within this year, he added.

Speaking alongside Meron, Serge Brammertz, the Prosecutor for the Tribunals, spoke of the work by the Residual Mechanism in locating the remaining eight fugitives indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The criminal tribunal, which is also prosecuting perpetrators of genocide in the former Yugoslavia, told the UN Security Council that it had assumed the full scope of the residual functions of the two countries.

Brammertz informed the Security Council about the search for missing persons in the former Yugoslavia and that many stakeholders took the initiative to raise the issue with his office and seek its assistance.

“Efforts are urgently needed to strengthen the search for missing persons. 10,000 families – from all sides – still do not know the fate of their loved ones,” he added.

This development is another example of “the Mechanism’s commitment to best practice and to serving as a model for accountability in all respects,” the Prosecutor said.

The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism) was established by the Security Council Resolution in 2010 to complete the remaining work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia after the completion of their respective mandates, in December 2015 and December 2017, respectively.