He said that there should be explanations of why the international community received files and kept custody of the archives other than sending them back to Rwanda.
Busingye raised the issue in discussions bringing together different government officials including the Minister of Justice and the President of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), Judge Carmel Agius who is in Rwanda for a visit.
Rwanda has for several years been arguing its right to keep custody of the archives on behalf of the UN which are currently housed in Arusha, Tanzania.
The archives include tons of video recordings of testimonies, written requests to the court and written decisions. Some of the testimonies were held behind closed doors to protect the security of witnesses
Having ICTR keeping the archives in Tanzania despite the demand to transfer them to Rwanda is among the issues discussed.
Carmel Agius who has recently replaced Theodor Meron former president of tribunal said he can do nothing to have Rwanda keep the archives.
“There are obstacles beyond my powers for Rwanda to get the archives. The United Nations has already decided to keep all ICTY and ICTR documents as the property of the UN over the next 25 years. The organization ruled that these archives should not be transferred to any other country,” he said.
“I can’t say anything about it because the decision was taken by superiors,” added Carmel Agius.
He however explained that they will help researchers, lecturers, and families of genocide survivors and others to obtain desired information.
Minister Busingye said that Rwanda already knows the decision of UN but never welcomed it.
“Some of these documents include original copies as a property of the Republic of Rwanda which we never offered to UN permanently. How do they become the property of UN? If we don’t explain things right there might be someone to clarify so that we can understand how these documents became the property of the UN,” he said.
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