BRIEF OF THE LAWYERS COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ASAMICUS CURIAE

In the Matter of the Surrender of Elizaphan Ntakirutima

United States District Court
Southern District of Texas Laredo Division

Statement of Interest

The Lawyers Committee is a United States-based nongovernmental organization that has worked since 1978 to protect fundamental human rights and to hold governments to the standards defined by human rights and humanitarian law. The Lawyers Committee conducts fact-finding missions, publishes reports, and engages in sustained follow-up work with (i) locally-based human rights lawyers and activists, (ii) policy makers involved in formulating United States foreign policy, and (iii) intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Organization of African Unity, and the World Bank. The Lawyers Committee has consultative status with the United Nations, and has worked to promote international cooperation with the Rwanda Tribunal. In May 1995, for example, the Lawyers Committee wrote to representatives of forty nations asking what steps had been taken to implement procedures for cooperation with the Rwanda Tribunal and reminding the representatives that all Member States of the United Nations are obligated to assist the Rwanda Tribunal.

Respondent is the first person that the United States has been requested to surrender to the Rwanda Tribunal. Thus, this case will set an important domestic precedent on the relationship of the United States to the Rwanda Tribunal and the United States' obligation to comply with lawful requests for the surrender of individuals who have been indicted by international tribunals.

Equally important, this case will also set a significant international precedent concerning the obligation of nations to cooperate with international criminal tribunals established under the auspices of the United Nations. The United States has been a world leader in demanding that other nations comply with their obligations to surrender indictees to international criminal tribunals, particularly the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the tribunal created by the United Nations to prosecute war crimes arising in that area. The Magistrate Judge's decision has seriously embarrassed the United States in the world community, and emboldened states in the former Yugoslavia to continue to resist demands that they surrender their citizens to face trial before that international tribunal. Similarly, the U. N. Ambassador for Libya recently cited the case to defend his country's refusal to turn over Libyan nationals suspected of participating in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 for trial in Britain or the United States. See Betty Pisik, Libya Scores Sanctions, Washington Times, Jan. 26, 1998, at A12. Reconsideration of Magistrate Judge Notzon's decision is thus required to avoid continuing damage to United States foreign policy, and to correct a misguided decision that will have serious adverse consequences for future enforcement of internationally recognized prohibitions against the most serious crimes known to the world community, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Because of the significance of this case, the Lawyer's Committee submitted a memorandum of law as amicus curiae in support of the United States' first request for the surrender of the respondent to the Rwanda Tribunal, outlining the obligation of the United States to cooperate with the Rwanda Tribunal under international and domestic law. A copy of that memorandum is attached hereto as Exhibit A. The Lawyers Committee now seeks to submit this supplemental memorandum to address the Magistrate Judge's decision and its reasoning.