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Kufuor to go to Kenya for crisis
talks
Sat Jan 5, 2008 6:47pm EST
By Daniel Wallis and Barry Moody
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ghanaian President John Kufuor will visit
Kenya next week in an attempt to break the country's political
deadlock and end its explosion of ethnic violence, his foreign
minister said on Saturday.
The mission by Kufuor, chair of the African Union, to a nation
swept by tribal clashes since a December 27 election the
opposition says was rigged, had appeared to have been abandoned on
Friday after Kenyan authorities rejected the idea.
But Kenya's deputy foreign minister Moses Wetangula flew to Ghana
for talks on Saturday, and Ghanaian Foreign Minister Akwasi
Osei-Adjei told Reuters that embattled Kenyan President Mwai
Kibaki, official election winner, had now approved the trip.
"The Kenya president is inviting President Kufuor in his position
as the AU chairman to visit that country to assess the situation
and advise ... he is going there next week to talk to both sides
on ways of ending the violence," he said.
"I must emphasize that we are not going to go there immediately to
validate the election results as to who has won or not."
Earlier on Saturday, Kibaki said he was ready to form a national
unity government to end riots and political bloodletting that have
killed at least 300 people and forced 250,000 from their homes.
The opposition said the offer changed nothing, Kibaki should step
down and only internationally-mediated talks would end the crisis.
"The country is burning. We're extremely distressed that this
government has put roadblocks in the way of President Kufuor
coming here more quickly," said Salim Lone, spokesman for Kibaki's
rival Odinga.
A spokesman for Kibaki's team said he could not immediately
comment on what had caused the hold-up in Kufuor's visit.
He said he had just returned from Rift Valley -- where some of the
worst tribal clashes have taken place -- and repeated the
government's allegation that the violence was "genocide" planned
before the polls by opposition leaders.
DISTRUST
The United Nations says the unrest has uprooted 250,000 people,
and that many in the west are facing starvation after fleeing
violence that included the burning to death of 30 people
barricaded in a church.
World powers have been horrified by the bloodshed in what had been
seen as one of Africa's most stable democracies. On Saturday, U.S.
envoy Jendayi Frazer met both men, shortly before Kibaki unveiled
his offer of a unity government.
Odinga had looked on course to win the vote until Kibaki was
handed a narrow victory last Sunday. International observers say
the election fell short of democratic standards.
The opposition appeared to have ruled out a national unity
government even before Kibaki's statement.
"We know how governments of national unity operate. We have been
there before with Kibaki. That is a way to cheat Kenyans of their
rights," Odinga said.
Odinga helped Kibaki win power in a 2002 election, but says the
president then broke a promise to award him a new prime minister's
position. Their mutual distrust is a key obstacle to ending the
standoff.
Meeting Frazer, Odinga reiterated his demand that a transitional
government be formed ahead of new presidential vote within three
to six months.
Kibaki was sworn in at his residence on Sunday just an hour after
the results were announced. Opposition anger exploded around the
country in demonstrations and tribal killings that mostly only
subsided on Friday.
The crisis in Kenya, a regional business and transport hub, has
already hurt neighboring countries. Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are
all suffering fuel shortages.
(Additional reporting by Bryson Hull, Katie Nguyen, Nicolo
Gnecchi, Wangui Kanina, Joseph Sudah and Kwasi Kpodo; editing by
Andrew Roche)
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