After
ICC Ruling on
Kenya, Araud
Tells ICP UNSC
"Won't Get" to
Deferral
Request
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 18 --
Amid still
conflicting
reports about
a request
to the UN
Security
Council to
defer the
International
Criminal
Court's Kenya
case or cases,
Inner City
Press on
Friday asked
French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
what France's
response would
be to such a
request.
Earlier
on
Friday Kenya's
Permanent
Representative
Macharia Kamau
exclusively
told Inner
City Press that it was
not a move by
Kenya, but by
the African
Union, not yet
formally filed
by the AU.
Also
earlier on
Friday in The
Hague, ICC
judges excused
Kenyan
President
Uhuru Kenyatta
from
"continuous
presence" at
his trial, to
begin November
12 (presiding
Judge Kuniko
Ozaki
dissented).
When
Inner City
Press asked
Araud for
France's
position on a
request to
defer ICC
prosecution of
Kenyatta, he
stopped and
exclusively
told
Inner City
Press,
"Frankly
that's not the
question. The
ICC
granted the
request. In a
sense, we
won't get to
the step you
describe."
The
answer is
appreciated.
But is it
certain that
the request
for full
deferral won't
be made? And
are the ICC
judges'
decisions now
openly
political,
almost a form
of negotiation
to keep
jurisdiction
or
relevance?
On
October 14,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin
Nesikry:
Inner
City Press:
there's a
report that
says that the
Secretary-General
called
a number of
the Presidents
in attendance
[at the AU]
and told
them that he
would use his
position to
amend the Rome
Statute... it
also includes
the response
of one of the
Presidents,
Robert Mugabe
of
Zimbabwe,
saying that
the
Secretary-General
has no ability
to amend
the Rome
Statute. Is
it? Could we
get just a
factual
readout of who
he called in
connection
with that AU
summit?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I will check.
What we will
be able to
say: the
Secretary-General
certainly did
make a number
of telephone
calls, but
I don’t think
that we will
be going into
the details of
those
calls.
Inner
City Press:
What about
just WHO he
called?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I can tell you
that a number
of telephone
calls were
made,
and not just
by the
Secretary-General.
The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
@FUNCA_info
believes that
as a matter of
transparency,
such calls by
the UN
Secretary
General should
be
disclosed.
Selectively
disclosing
some but not
all calls to
heads of
state turns
the UN
(further) into
a House of
Spin. Watch
this site.
, 
