Africa backs Kenya call for Hague court to drop Kenyatta case
By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA | Fri May 24, 2013 6:46am EDT
(Reuters) - African nations have backed a request by Kenya for charges of
crimes against humanity by its president to be referred back to the east
African country, African Union documents show.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, are both facing trial
in the International Criminal Court (ICC), accused of masterminding ethnic
bloodshed in post-election violence five years ago that killed more than
1,200 people. Both deny the charges.
One minister, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters that the African
Union specifically avoided calling on the war crimes tribunal to drop its
prosecution, but he acknowledged that the request for a local process
amounted to the same thing.
The document seen by Reuters on Friday said: "(The Assembly) supports and
endorses the eastern Africa region's request for a referral of the ICC
investigations and prosecutions."
The proposal, drafted after foreign ministers had debated the issue late on
Thursday, now has to be voted on by heads of state, which diplomats say is
typically a rubber-stamping exercise.
Kenya told the assembly that the ICC trials risked destabilizing east
Africa's biggest economy when it was undertaking reforms to avoid a repeat
of the violence after the election in December 2007.
The African Union said that a referral of the cases would "allow for a
national mechanism to investigate and prosecute the cases under a reformed
judiciary ... to prevent the resumption of conflict and violence in Kenya."
The ICC's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has previously said that she
will not drop the cases. Many Africans feel that the continent is targeted
by the ICC, making the court deeply unpopular across Africa.
Kenyatta's trial is due to begin in July.
(Additional reporting and writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Drazen Jorgic
and David Goodman)
South Sudan says war crimes court persecutes Africans
By Hereward Holland
JUBA | Thu May 23, 2013 2:06pm EDT
(Reuters) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir said on Thursday his country
would never become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC),
saying it appeared to be preoccupied with prosecuting African leaders.
"It seems that this thing has been meant for African leaders, that they have
to be humiliated...we never accept it," Kiir told reporters, referring to
the Hague-based tribunal.
"We will sit together with our brothers and sisters in Kenya," he said at a
news conference in South Sudan's capital Juba held jointly with Kenya's new
president Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces charges of crimes against humanity at
the tribunal.
Last month, South Sudan received Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir,
another African leader indicted by the Hague tribunal for masterminding war
crimes in the western region of Darfur.
The African Union, which is holding a summit this week, routinely accuses
the ICC of bias against African leaders.
Kiir and Kenyatta also pledged to implement a memorandum of understanding
signed last year to build an oil pipeline from landlocked South Sudan to
Lamu on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast.
"With the pipeline project we have agreed an area where we need to tackle
the funding jointly together as a join Kenyan-South Sudan project," Kenyatta
said, without giving details.
South Sudan restarted oil exports through Sudan in April following a
16-month shutdown triggered by disputes over pipeline fees. The rift caused
South Sudan to undertake feasibility studies for alternative pipelines
through Kenya and through Ethiopia to Djibouti.
(Editing by Ulf Laessing and Michael Roddy)
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Received on Fri May 24 2013 - 14:57:47 EDT
