The U.N. court investigating the 1994 genocide in Rwanda said on Monday it had taken four investigators off its payroll because, like the defendants they worked for, they were suspected of war crimes.
The disclosure was a fresh blow to the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, already under fire for being behind schedule and bogged down in bureaucratic infighting.
The court is based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha and is hearing cases stemming from the 1994 slaughter of up to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu troops and militias.
It issued a statement saying it would not renew employment contracts for the four investigators as three of them were named on a Rwandan government list of genocide suspects while the fourth was under investigation by a court prosecutor for possible involvement in atrocities.
The investigators were part of defense teams paid by the court to represent indigent suspects.
Bureau Report
