The UN Security Council voted this evening to remove Ms Carla Del Ponte as prosecutor for the Rwanda genocide court but to retain her as chief prosecutor for the Balkan war crimes tribunal.
At present she holds both jobs for four-year terms, which expire on September 14th. The 15-member council decided to split the posts.
Ms Del Ponte's office in The Hague, Netherlands, said she would accept a second four-year term, thereby ending speculation she would quit her post after voicing opposition earlier this month to being taken off the Rwanda court.
Ms Del Ponte, a tough former Swiss attorney general, had argued that she was a victim of pressure from Rwanda as well as a "media campaign to destroy my reputation."
But her spokeswoman said Ms Del Ponte believed the resolution backed theindependence of the judiciary and the prosecutor.
A US-drafted resolution, approved unanimously, amends statutes for the Rwanda tribunal, based in Arusha, Tanzania. It asks Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan to nominate a new prosecutor for the court trying perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which cost some 800,000 lives.
Diplomats expect the post to go to an African.
Del Ponte loses Rwanda prosecutor roleThe UN Security Council voted this evening to remove Ms Carla Del Ponte as prosecutor for the Rwanda genocide court but to retain her as chief prosecutor for the Balkan war crimes tribunal.
At present she holds both jobs for four-year terms, which expire on September 14th. The 15-member council decided to split the posts.
Ms Del Ponte's office in The Hague, Netherlands, said she would accept a second four-year term, thereby ending speculation she would quit her post after voicing opposition earlier this month to being taken off the Rwanda court.
Ms Del Ponte, a tough former Swiss attorney general, had argued that she was a victim of pressure from Rwanda as well as a "media campaign to destroy my reputation."
But her spokeswoman said Ms Del Ponte believed the resolution backed the independence of the judiciary and the prosecutor.
A US-drafted resolution, approved unanimously, amends statutes for the Rwanda tribunal, based in Arusha, Tanzania. It asks Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan to nominate a new prosecutor for the court trying perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which cost some 800,000 lives.
Diplomats expect the post to go to an African.