Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wish to comment on the remarks made upon the acquitted persons. It’s very difficult to recognise what was described to you as anything similar to the truth that I know about Mr. Ntagerura and Mr. Bagambiki, because, of course, I have lived, if I may say figuratively, I have lived with them since their case led to an acquittal in February 2006. I know them very well, and I have been in charge of their circumstances, along with the Registrar.

Had Mr. Ntagerura wished to go to any country in the African continent, he would have been there within a matter of weeks of his acquittal. It’s a simple fact.

To suggest that he is in some way being made some kind of terrible victim is really a travesty of the truth. I have to be careful about how much I comment in detail about this particular man’s case because I don’t wish to prejudice his further development of his ambitions. The simple fact is that, you will understand from what I have just said, that there have been other desires involved in his relocation and where he wished to go. And those were not satisfied by the international community.

Had he wished to go to any country, any country at all, on the African continent, he would have been there without any difficulty. We would have had no difficulty, and we would have no difficulty today.

The simple fact is and there is some truth in this particular fact that no proper provision was made for acquittal at the beginning of the setting up of the Tribunal. That much is a fact, and it’s one that we have been struggling with in the registry ever since. There was no budget for dealing with acquitted persons.
Again, there was a travesty of the truth in this discussion of the conditions of the acquitted persons, and that depends to some extent on whom perhaps counsel listened to as a witness of truth. But I can tell that you the acquitted persons have always been dealt with in the most luxurious manner. A great deal more luxurious are their own conditions than my own living conditions, if may I say so, in Arusha, and they have been so from nearly the beginning.

So I think it’s quite important to stay, at least in some way, loosely connected with the truth when dealing with these matters.