**The UN Security Council has given the tribunal for Rwanda’s genocide until 2012 to finish all its cases.**The BBC’s Jamhuri Mwavyombo at the court’s base in Arusha, Tanzania, says the tribunal will have to speed up its work to meet this new deadline.
The court, set up to try those most responsible for the genocide, was originally due to close in 2008 but some key suspects remain at large.
Rwanda has long complained that the tribunal is too slow and expensive.
“If you give another 50 years to that court, it will never finish those cases,” a Rwandan official has been quoted as saying.
Our reporter says the tribunal has completed only half of the cases it has started, even though 81 of the 90 suspects have been arrested.
The initial stages of the cases are supposed to end by June 2010, according to the latest extension.
The remaining 18 months are for appeals.
Our reporter says there are fears that, as the deadline approaches, some of the tribunal’s most experienced legal staff could start looking for new jobs, meaning further delays.
In his speech to the UN Security Council, ICTR president Dennis Byron said: “The mandate of the tribunal will not be fulfilled until those accused have been apprehended.”
In particular, he pointed to Felicien Kabuga, accused of financing the 1994 killings, who is believed to be living in Kenya.
Some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the 100-day massacre.