View Video | Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal

Ellis Odjurhe
speaks on ...

the challenges of securing the detention facilities

Transcript0:00
When the lawyers come here, most of, not all of them, there are some of them who are quite cooperative, but some of them when they come they give a lot of trouble to the officers at the gate.
0:11
For example there is no way you can say that you have searched someone when actually that person is still in possession of something that is unauthorized. Somebody – when you say you’ve searched someone it is assumed that that person is free of anything that can constitute nuisance or any form of danger to the facility.
0:34
But here we, we, we have a situation where a lawyer will come and maybe the officer at the gate ask him, “Let me open this book and see what is there.” They say, “Ah, no, you want to see my legal ma-, materials. You want to see my defense.”
0:50
Okay, if I don’t open it and you keep some currency notes here, there is no way the machine can detect that you have currency notes there. Now you go in, you pass the, the, maybe about a 1,000 or 2,000 dollars to a detainee.
1:07
With which if other security measures are not properly taken care of, he could, he could, I mean that could aid him in facilitating his escape if he wishes to. So I think there is not much support or much regard for the need to really ensure that security regulations are completely obeyed.
1:38
Because it’s really important, it’s not just for any other thing it’s for both the, the, the protection of the detainees themselves and the staff.  So I th-, I wish there was more cooperation with the security system here.