THE HAGUE.- The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is
suffering from nepotism, and the leadership of the Tribunal are having an
internal power struggle to employ as many friends and connections as
possible, although these are often completely useless and have never done
any investigative work before then.
This is obvious from remarks made by numerous employees at the Tribunal, whom Aktuelt has spoken to while investigating the conditions at the Tribunal for several months.
It is a Tribunal, where very little functions satisfactorily and where consequently people responsible for massacres on thousands of innocent people may walk away scot-free because of an incompetent prosecution.
"Some of the people I work with cannot speak French, cannot speak English and have never tried using a computer before", an investigator in Kigali says with a strained smile.
He is used to catching criminals, where he comes from.
The big fish. Organized crime, he explains.
That is in fact why he is here in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda - to help catch the masterminds behind one of the biggest and most organized crimes in history, the Genocide of up to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and get them behind bars. But unexpected problems have materialized.
His assistant, for instance, does not know French, although 80% of the documents they go through are written in French. And despite the fact that the Tribunal during the last six months has been in desperate need of competent investigators, several western colleagues with up to 20 years of experience have been rejected.
The fact that some of the employees cannot use a computer might not matter all that much, because there is a widespread lack of them. Tables, chairs, cars and petrol are lacking as well.
"It took three months before I got a desk and a computer", one investigator rages.
The reason why it has been allowed to develop so far is, according to Aktuelt's sources, a power struggle among the senior officials at the Tribunal, who are trying to employ political connections and friends from their home countries.
The consequences have been that many without the necessary experience have been employed.
"Nepotism and cronyism are thriving. Many are only employed on their CV without an interview", a former investigator says, estimating that "to be conservative" 30-50% of those already there are unqualified for the positions they hold.
"Many investigators just want to milk the UN machine. They don't care about the Genocide", the person says, explaining how many people manipulate their CVs in order to get a lucrative job.
"But nothing happens. Recently there was a woman who was employed, because she knew another senior staff member. But when she came, it was clear that her CV didn't match her ability. [The Deputy Prosecutor Bernard] Muna didn't do anything about it. Instead of firing her, she was skipped off as a clerk."
And the list goes on. All investigators Aktuelt have spoken to have their own stories to tell - banal or grotesque. About how some employees fly around the globe at the expense of the Tribunal while not having to provide any justification for what they have been doing, while others have to "fight to borrow a car and drive out and draw sketches of mass graves", as one investigator narrates.
But although the UNs internal auditing unit, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, visited the Tribunal recently - according to a source at the Tribunal "they were terrified for all they saw" - the leadership of the Tribunal had their report watered down when it reached the UN headquarters in New York.
It was a report by this auditing unit which three years ago forced UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to sack the top leadership of the Tribunal.
According to observers, the Tribunal is in exactly the same situation now - except that the leadership of the Tribunal has become better at preventing negative information from leaking to the outside world.
When Aktuelt asked one of the Tribunal's senior officials for a comment on the allegations, he just replied that he would sue us for libel if we mentioned his name in connection with the article.
The leadership has also made sure to screen Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte from contact with the other employees during her short visit to Kigali recently.
"It is almost impossible to get near her", one employee says.
The way this Tribunal works would be comical, had it not been because it is so tragic, and this has called even the loudest critics to tread carefully. Several internationally renowned scholars do not wish to comment on the Tribunal.
Not because they don't think there are problems.
"One of my colleagues recently told me that he had stopped criticizing the Tribunal out of fear that the very idea of an international justice system was threatened", one expert says, who does not wish to be mentioned either.