As explained in a letter from the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was transmitted in identical letters to the Presidents of the Council and General Assembly, by the terms of its resolution 1503 (2003), the Council had called upon the Tribunal to take all possible measures to complete all trial activities at first instance by the end of 2008, and the Tribunal has substantially complied with that strategy. However, due to new developments beyond the Tribunal’s control, including the arrest of two high-level accused at the end of 2007 and one early in 2008, the scheduling of these trials “cannot avoid a spillover of the evidence phase into 2009, with judgement delivery in the second half of 2009”.