ICC talks to Rwanda about non-membership
Posted by AFP on 29 Jan 2010 | Leave a comment
THE HAGUE — Rwanda’s Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama has met top officials of the International Criminal Court in The Hague to discuss the country’s non-membership of the court, a statement said Thursday.
“During the meeting the president of the ICC, Judge Sang-Hyun Song, inquired about the prospects of the Republic of Rwanda acceding to the Rome Statute,” the court’s founding document, the ICC said in a statement.
“President Song underlined the Court?s commitment to assist in any appropriate way to ensure that the government and people of Rwanda become familiar with its mandate.”
He also invited Rwanda to attend a Rome Statute review conference to be held in Kampala, Uganda in May and June.
Karugarama was accompanied for Wednesday’s meeting by Rwanda’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Jean Pierre Bizimana, the court said.
“The prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and the registrar Silvana Arbia also held meetings with the Rwandan high representatives.”
In an address last July, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame dismissed the ICC as a new form of imperialism created by the West to control the world’s poorest countries.
International Criminal Court judge Sang-Hyun Song