JUDGES at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on Friday elected South African Navanethem Pilla as their president to replace Laity Kama of Senegal, who stepped down after two two-year terms. Of Indian ancestry, Pillay was born in 1941 and is the mother of two daughters, the Swiss-based Hirondelle news agency reported from the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, where the UN tribunal sits. She was the first non-white to practise law in Natal, in 1967, and defended opponents of apartheid, including members of the African National Congress. She sits on South Africa’s supreme court, and lectures in law at the University of Natal.