Nairobi - Prisoners at the Rwanda genocide court in Tanzania have begun a hunger strike in protest at the transfer of three cases to Rwanda, reports said Tuesday. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has asked for three of six cases awaiting trial to be transferred to Rwanda, the scene of 100 days of ethnic bloodletting which killed 800,000 people in 1994.
But prisoners claim the transfer would not allow a fair trial.
Some 40 of the 55 prisoners at the ICTR in Arusha, northern Tanzania, are taking part in the hunger strike, the Hirondelle agency reported.
In a letter dated October 5, the prisoners demanded the ICTR president should "in convenient time ask the (United Nations) Security Council to prolong the mandate of this tribunal consequently or to transfer some non-completed trials to courts in countries other than Rwanda."
The ICTR is set to wrap up trials by the end of next year, continuing appeal cases until the end of 2010 and has set out, as part of its completion strategy, the transfer of cases to Rwanda and other national jurisdictions that will take them.
Since its creation in 1994 to try high-profile genocide suspects, the court has cost the international community over 1 billion dollars. It has convicted 28 people and acquitted five while six prisoners are still awaiting trial.
