UNITED
NATIONS, May 9
-- Kenya sent
a letter to
the UN
Security
Council
about the
International
Criminal Court
cases against
President
Uhuru
Kenyatta and
Deputy
President
William Ruto.
Then Rwanda
pushed
Kenya's
request under
Any Other
Business on
Thursday
afternoon,
after
a meeting
about Guinea
Bissau.
Hours
later, at 7
pm, Rwanda's
Eugene Richard
Gasana emerged
shaking his
head. They
don't get it,
he told Inner
City Press
exclusively.
Africa
is angry about
this.
Gasana
said the
opponents did
not even want
Kenya's
Permanent
Representative
to be able to
address the
Security
Council with
this country's
request, but
instead to
refer it to a
working group
on tribunals.
That's
insulting,
Gasana said.
Numerous other
Council
members Inner
City
Press spoke
with agreed.
But what did
the Western
permanent
members
say? Inner
City Press
asked, but
they would not
answer, the
representative
of one of them
even saying
that "no
comment"
was "off the
record."
These
are the same
countries
which did
little in 2009
as Sri Lanka
was killed
tens of
thousands of
civilians.
Later,
Inner City
Press was
exclusively
told by other
members that
while it
was Guatemala
which proposed
that Kenya
address the
working group
rather than
the Council,
the US --
which is not a
member of the
ICC
-- joined in
this.
Morocco
on
the other hand
said Kenya
could be heard
first by the
Council,
which could
then refer the
issues down to
the working
group if it
saw
fit.
With
no consensus,
Argentina
proposed that
Kenya
submitted a
second
letter, asking
for a meeting
or informal
interactive
dialogue.
Round
and round it
goes.
Another
complaint
arose: that
current ICC
prosecutor
Fatou
Bensouda, when
she
comes to New
York, does not
even make a
courtesy call
on the
Permanent
Representative
of Kenya. "No
respect," as
one
Council member
put it to
Inner City
Press.
Earlier
on
Thursday Inner
City Press
asked UN
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson:
Inner
City Press: I
wanted to know
if in your
discussions
with Uhuru
Kenyatta, he
made a request
of the
Security
Council to
have the
International
Criminal Court
(ICC)
proceedings
deferred for a
year,
or suspended,
and I wanted
to know if
this was
raised in your
meeting, or if
you have any
thoughts on
it; they were
saying it
would
be a danger to
regional
security to
continue it.
DSG
Jan Eliasson:
Thank you very
much. The
matter was not
raised. We are
taking the
stand that we
should be in
contact with
President
Kenyatta. He
is a very
important
actor of
course in the
African
scene; he has
just been
elected
President in
Kenya. He is
absolutely
crucial for
developments
in Somalia,
and it was an
important
meeting.
The ICC aspect
we are, of
course,
completely
aware of, but
it seems
to me that he
cooperates
fully with the
Court, and as
long as this
cooperation is
as good as it
is, there are
no problems
for us to deal
with the
President of
Kenya, and I
had a very
good meeting
with him. [Video here.]
At
the Guinea
Bissau meeting
that preceded
the Kenya
session,
Brazil's
Permanent
Representative
noted that the
UN Office on
Drugs and
Crime
had suspended
work in Guinea
Bissau a month
ago. A UN
official,
asked
by Inner City
Press to
confirm this,
said yes, it
is a
contradiction.
The UN is full
of them.
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