The Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Mr. Bongani Majola has been appointed to act as interim Prosecutor of the ICTR until a new Prosecutor is appointed. This is contained in the UN Security Council Resolution 1503 adopted on 28 August 2003 which splits the prosecutorial duties for the criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Ms. Carla Del Ponte, who was the Prosecutor for both Tribunals for Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, will be nominated Prosecutor for the ICTY.

On 28 July 2003, the Secretary-General wrote to the Security Council recommending that the Office of Prosecutor for both ICTR and ICTY be split.

Mr. Majola took up his duty as Deputy Prosecutor on 28 January 2003. Before joining the Tribunal, Mr. Majola was the head of the Legal Resources Center in South Africa, one of the world's leading public interest law groups, for the past six years. Before that, he was Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of the North in South Africa.

Mr. Majola is fifty years old and is married with two children. He studied law at the University of Zululand, Empangeni and obtained an LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 1988. He has also taught law and carried out research at the School of Advanced International Studies and at Yale University.