The Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, has appointed Judge Asoka de Zoysa Gunawardena from Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Judge Gunawardena, who will be assigned to the third Trial Chamber of the ICTR, replaces Judge Dionysios Kondylis (Greece) who resigned on 22 March 1999 for personal reasons.

Mr. Annan made the appointment after consultation with the Presidents of the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations as provided for in the Statute of the Tribunal (Article 12).

Judge Gunawardana was born on 6 August 1942. He was enrolled as an advocate of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in June 1967 and was admitted to the Bar of the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of New South Wales in November 1984. He worked in the Attorney-General's department as Crown Counsel from 1972 to 1986 when he was appointed Deputy Solicitor General. In March 1988 Judge Gunawardana was appointed Judge of the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka.

The Judge is a graduate of Law from the University of Ceylon, Colombo (1969), and has a Ph.D in Law (1986) from the University of Sydney, Australia. He also holds a Diploma in Human Rights from Raoul Wallenberg Institute, University of Lund, Sweden (1993).