|
In Kenya, Amnesty Rift Echoes Annan-Led Mediation, Leaked
Minutes Show, Council Passes Through
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press in Kenya: News Analysis
NAIROBI,
June 1 --As both
President Mwai Kibabi and Prime Minister Raila Odinga celebrated
Kenya's 45th
year of independence here Sunday, the dispute between then concerning
whether
those held for political violence earlier this year should be
prosecuted
continued to heat up. Odinga favors release, saying this is not even
amnesty, "because
they committed no crime. Is it a crime to fight for your democratic
rights? Or
is it a crime to stand and say that last year’s elections were rigged?"
Kibaki, on the other hands, said that those in jail should be put on
trial.
Leaked
minutes of the mediation led by Kofi Annan, given to
Inner City Press by
well-placed Kenyan sources, show that these very issues, of
"reconciliation" and so-called transitional justice, were discussed
in the process that led to the power-sharing agreement. On February 29,
for
example, in a session also attended by Ghana's former Ambassador to the
UN Nana
Effah-Apenteng, as chief of staff of the Kenya National Dialogue and
Reconciliation
secretariat and Odinda negotiator William Ruto quotes Ruto
"that
as a
person from the Rift Valley, he recognized that the people there had
resisted
an earlier truth and justice process, having seen it as process of
apportioning
blame. In the current situation, however, they would be ready and
willing to
put historical injustices on the table in order to do away with them.
Building
police stations in the Rift Valley would not fix matters."
Click here for the February 29 Minutes.
Kofi Annan and Mwai Kibaki during mediation,
amnesty rift not yet shown
Inner City Press'
interviewing in Nairobi on June 1 tended to confirm this. Speaking just
outside
the Nyayo National Stadium, a man who asked that his name not be used
due to
continued fear said he doubted he or other displacees from the Rift
Valley
would return. "It's much worse being beaten by people you know than by
strangers," he said. "How can you go back? The trust isn't
there." He predicted the Kenyan economy will continue to suffer for at
least two more years, due to the violence as well as to the worsening
food
price crisis.
On that, police here fired tear gas at food price
protesters on May 31,
arresting four. Inflation in Kenya soared to 26.6 per cent in
April from
21.8 per cent the previous month due to the rising cost of food.
Members
of the UN Security Council convened in
Kenya, where they had planned to meet with Somalia's Transitional
Federal
Government. The TFG, however, is in Djibouti meeting with portions of
the
Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia. And so the Council members
and
accompanying media, including Inner City Press, will set out Monday
before dawn
for Djibouti, and after that Sudan. Watch this site.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
