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Odinga tells German paper Kibaki
creating "killing fields" in Kenya
19.01.08 12:54
( dpa ) - Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga accused President
Mwai Kibaki and the police of turning the East African country
into "killing fields" in their attempt to suppress protests
against electoral fraud, in an interview published in Germany
Saturday.
Odinga acknowledged that relatively few people had demonstrated
against the government in recent days, attributing this to police
brutality.
But he said he knew of enough young people willing to resort to
armed resistance. "I don't even want to think about this
possibility," he told the daily Frankfurter Rundschau.
Odinga said the opposition would go over to boycotting businesses
and banks linked to Kibaki's government and talk to the trade
unions about calling a strike.
The opposition was not prepared to accept the electoral fraud
perpetrated by the government, he said.
But the opposition leader held out the possibility of negotiating
a deal with the president along the lines of Germany's grand
coalition of the two major parties.
"A joint presidency or a president and a vice president with
precisely defined division of powers would be conceivable," he
told the newspaper.
Odinga insists the December 27 presidential vote should be
recounted and that Kibaki should acknowledge electoral fraud in
securing re-election.
The former secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, is
to arrive in the country Tuesday to kick off new mediation talks
after his visit was postponed this week for health reasons.
Kenya was plunged into violence after the polls, with at least 600
people killed in violence that has touched off ethnic tensions.
Another 250,000 have been displaced.
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