ICTJ Says AU Support for Kenya’s ICC Withdrawl Unlikely

From FM News, NAIROBI, Kenya Jan 12 2010- The International Centre for Transitional Justice says it is unlikely that African Union member states will support the call by Kenya to withdraw from the Rome Statute which establishes the International Criminal Court . The Head of the ICTJ Kenya Office Njonjo Mue ruled out a case of a bloc withdrawal by African countries which form the largest members to the court.

“Although the AU has its issues with the refusal of the ICC to defer the Bashir indictment, African states have not individually said they have a problem, so they will withdraw but it is awaited to be seen what the game plan is,” he told Capital News.

This comes in the wake of reports that the Government has sent ministers to lobby different African countries to support its efforts to have the six Kenyans named by the International Criminal Court tried locally. Only this week, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka met Presidents Jacob Zuma and Yoweri Museveni over the issue and is expected to travel to Malawi with only two weeks left before African Union Heads of State meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for an AU summit.

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Kenyan Officials Seek AU Support in ICC Withdrawl

12 January 2011 VOA News

The campaign to remove Kenya from the International Criminal Court appears to be gathering steam as the east African nation looks to rally diplomatic support across Africa.
Members of Kenya’s cabinet are currently crossing the continent to gain African Union support for withdrawal from the court, the country’s major news outlets are reporting Wednesday.

Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper and Capital FM radio station have reported that Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka is in South Africa Wednesday to discuss withdrawal with President Jacob Zuma. The vice president is expected to visit Uganda on Thursday to push for further support from President Yoweri Museveni.

While news of the government-wide push contradicts past statements by Kenyan leaders, the Director for the Nairobi-based International Center for Policy and Conflict, Ndungu Wainaina, doubts whether the current coalition government ever actually supported the court.

“The war against ICC in Kenya is deeper than what it seems on the face,” said Wainaina. “Despite the various public statements by individual members, individual cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister, we have not seen a collective government position since this new war against the ICC began.”

It has been less than a month since International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced six suspects are to face judges in The Hague for their roles in Kenya’s post-election violence three years ago. The list, which confirmed speculation involving prominent politicians, such as Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and presidential hopeful William Ruto, also contained surprises, like civil servant Francis Muthaura and journalist Joshua arap Sang.

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Mass Graves in Cote D’Ivoire Under UN Investigation

The Guardian Jan 2 2010

UN peacekeepers have been ordered to do everything in their power to investigate reports of atrocities and mass graves in Ivory Coast, where post-election violence is alleged to have left more than 200 people dead.

The instruction came as the opposition leader Alassane Ouattara repeated his call for the international criminal court in The Hague to send a mission to examine the actions of troops loyal to PresidentLaurent Gbagbo.

In a new year’s message Gbagbo made clear he would continue his game of brinkmanship despite pressure from the UN and world leaders for him to avoid a return to civil war by standing down and allow Ouattara to enter office.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, phoned Ouattara yesterday. “The secretary-general told President Ouattara that he was alarmed by the reports of egregious human rights violations,” a UN spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said.

The UN believes up to 80 bodies may have been moved to a building in a pro-Gbagbo neighbourhood in the capital, Abidjan. Investigators have tried to visit several times, and even made it to the front door before truckloads of armed men forced them to leave.

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