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International Criminal Court To Investigate Kenya Post-Poll Violence 15 days ago
(RTTNews) - Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, said Thursday that he would request the judges at the ICC to open an investigation into last year's post-poll violence in Kenya.
Ocampo made the comments at a joint press conference with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the country's capital city of Nairobi. Earlier in the day, the two Kenyan leaders had promised Ocampo during a two-hour-long closed-door meeting that they would co-operate fully with the ICC investigation.
"I informed them, in December I would request to the judges of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation and that is the process established by the Rome Treaty," Ocampo said. "I explained to them that I consider the crimes committed in Kenya were crimes against humanity, therefore the gravity is there. So therefore I should proceed."
In September, the ICC had announced that it has taken the responsibility of trying "most responsible" perpetrators of last year's post-poll violence in Kenya. The ICC move came after the Kenyan government failed to meet the earlier agreed 30th September deadline to inform the ICC about the progress made in its investigation into the post poll violence.
Earlier, the Kenyans had reached an agreement with the ICC in July after its parliament failed to establish a special tribunal to try those responsible for the post-poll violence by the deadline set by an inquiry commission that probed the violence.
Kenya agreed in July to refer the case to the ICC if they failed to set up a special tribunal by July 2010, while promising to provide the ICC with details of their investigations into the post-poll violence by the end of September.
Post election violence broke out in Kenya after current Prime Minister Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement accused President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) of committing fraud in 2007 December presidential elections.
It is estimated that the post poll violence killed some 1,500 people and displaced 300,000 others in the African country. It was finally halted by a UN-brokered power-sharing deal, according to which Kibaki remained president while Odinga was appointed the country's prime minister. Former UN Secretary-General Annan was the chief mediator in the successful power-sharing talks.
But in August, Annan had handed a list of individuals suspected of involvement in Kenya's post poll- violence to Ocampo. The move was intended to pressurize the Kenyan government to establish a special tribunal to try senior politicians and businessmen accused of organizing the post-poll violence.
The list of suspects was given to Annan by the inquiry commission that probed the post-election violence. The inquiry commission, chaired by Justice Phillip Waki, had requested Annan to forward the list to the to the ICC if the Kenyan government failed to set up the tribunal by the stipulated deadline of March 1, 2009. The names of the suspects have not yet been released.
Though Kenya's cabinet agreed in November to act on the recommendations of the commission by setting up a special tribunal to probe the post-poll violence, it missed the stipulated deadline after the parliament failed to pass a required amendment bill in January.
Despite the extension of the deadline to establish the special tribunal by the ICC, the Kenyan cabinet has repeatedly failed to pass a required amendment bill for setting up the tribunal, mainly due to differences over the issue among cabinet members.
While some ministers argued that the case should be handed over to the ICC for carrying out independent and credible investigations, others strongly believed that entrusting the case to the ICC would put Kenya alongside failed states that do not have proper legal mechanism or are not stable enough to try suspects at home.
For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com
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