It would be an injustice if the archives of the Rwanda Tribunal (ICTR) are taken away from their rightful owners. This was a persistent argument throughout a two-day consultative summit on the United Nations ICTR archives in Tanzania last weekend.

Since its establishment in 1994, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has produced an enormous archive on the 1994 genocide.They consist of thousands of case files, correspondence files, affidavits, record books, seizures and audio and video material.  This judicial history, which is piled up in huge containers on the premises of the International Conference centre in Arusha, Tanzania is on the verge of being transferred to the United Nation's New York Headquarters' or to The Hague as soon as the court closes its doors in 2010.

Archives should remain in Africa
Many believe that these archives should remain in East-Africa, preferably in Rwanda, for future indictments of genocide suspects like Felicien Kabuga that are still on the run. That was the general conclusion of an international conference last weekend that was convened by the East African Law Society (EALS) and the Open University of Tanzania where the future of the tribunal's historical record was discussed.

The meeting, which took place in Arusha, was attended by legislators, archivists and curators from East Africa and beyond. Their conclusions will handed be over to the Goldstone Committee, chaired by former ICTR prosecutor Richard Goldstone, that will decide the final repository for the archives.

For the sake of history and victims
ICTR Legacy Committee Chairperson Jean-Pele Fomete said that it is "in the interest of East Africa and Africa as a whole that these historical and valuable archives be retained in Africa for future indictments of more genocide suspects eluding the long arm of justice." He added that they should remain in East Africa "for the sake of history and future reference by Rwandans who are the actual victims of the 1994 genocide that claimed over 800,000 Tutsis."

The director of the East African Law Society Don Deya said that taking away the archives will be a loss to the East African judiciary, and called on Africa to stand up against the relocation. He said "Africa has for long been an extraction area and if such material is taken away from us, it will be another extraction from Africa."

African countries have faced much criticism in the past over poor archive conditions, mostly due to climate factors. But Fomete said "there are appropriate storage facilities that meet international archival standards, giving us the capacity to store these documents so that a Rwandan genocide victim can easily access them, a student can use them for research and use it as future evidence to pin the missing genocide victims."

Collective memory
The discussants argued that because the bulk of the archives consists of witness statements from Rwandans they belong to Rwandans. They are as much a part of the country as are the genocide sites and museums, they are an essential part of the Rwandan collective memory.

Rwandan officials said that when the archives would be in Rwanda, it would also "create more impact for genocide researchers to come to Rwanda to look over the archives." and "while they are at it, visit the memorial sites and so have a more complete picture than they would get if the archives were located in another part of the world."