Thursday, May 13, 2010

Kenya / International Criminal Court

In Kenya, International Criminal Court to Try Six Top Kenyans
By Scott Baldauf
The Christian Science Monitor, May 12, 2010
"Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC), ended his visit to Kenya today after having met with victims of the post-election violence of early 2008 that killed some 1,300 people, and displaced some 300,000 others. Mr. Ocampo said that investigators had strong enough evidence to try six top Kenyans at the ICC at The Hague, with arrests warrants to be issued perhaps by the end of this year. But he did not name the six suspects. Ocampo's visit comes as the ICC investigation goes into high gear, interviewing dozens of witnesses and victims of the violence, in which organized mobs murdered neighbours based on ethnicity or chased them from their homes.
In accordance with a 2008 peace agreement hammered out by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the ICC prosecutor began his investigation after Kenya's parliament rejected a bill that would have created local tribunals to try the perpetrators of the election violence in Kenya itself. ... Speaking to Reuters news agency, Mr. Ocampo pledged to bring the 'most responsible' -- even senior Kenyan politicians if necessary -- to justice. 'The plan is to present the two cases with six people before the end of the year and then we hope to have the hearings in 2011,' Mr. Ocampo told Reuters. 'We will select the worst incidents ... There are more persons responsible, yes, I've got evidence against 20 more, yes, but I will select two or three.' [...]"

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