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UNICEF hails genocide conviction

Thursday, 3 September 1998: UNICEF has hailed the first international conviction by a United Nations tribunal for the crime of genocide. The conviction was announced yesterday in Arusha, Tanzania, by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In a statement attributable to its Executive Director Carol Bellamy, UNICEF said it was particularly gratified at the Tribunal's ruling that genocide includes crimes of sexual violence committed in the course of armed conflict.

The statement continued: "Although adjudication of the genocide committed in Rwanda was a slow process, yesterday's historic decision nevertheless represents a giant step forward. Together with the agreement reached by 120 nations last July to establish an International Criminal Court, the UN tribunal's decision moves the world closer to the day when a permanent international tribunal will be empowered to administer swift and sure legal retribution whenever, and wherever, it is warranted.

"The 90 days of unspeakable terror that killed more than 500,000 Rwandan children, women and men beginning on 7 April 1994 stands as stark evidence of the depths to which human behavior, unchecked by law, can descend. Yesterday's decision in Tanzania represents a firm determination that such evil will be punished and that violent criminals will no longer be able to hide behind a culture of impunity or the fiction that their actions ought somehow to be excused because committed in a theatre of war."

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