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Activists urge UN council to
tackle Kenya crisis
Mon 28 Jan 2008, 6:39 GMT
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council should do
something about the crisis in Kenya, since its post-election
turmoil threatens to destabilize the entire region, Kenyan civil
society activists said on Friday.
About 700 people have died in violence since President Mwai Kibaki
was re-elected in a disputed December 27 election which observers
say was flawed and opposition leader Raila Odinga and his Orange
Democratic Movement say was rigged.
Maina Kiai, head of the Kenyan government's human rights watchdog,
told reporters the crisis could destabilize Uganda, Somalia,
southern Sudan and other countries in the region.
"Even discussion of this issue at the Security Council would have
a very powerful message," he told a news conference organized by
the Open Society Institute, a civil society foundation established
by investor George Soros.
The 15-nation Security Council is the U.N. body charged with
maintaining international peace and security.
Kiai said he planned to meet South Africa's U.N. delegation during
his visit to New York to impress upon them the need to bring the
issue of Kenya to the council.
Muthoni Wanyeki, head of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, a
non-governmental civil society organization, said she and Kiai
wanted an independent investigation of the election.
Kiai said such an audit was necessary because Kenyans have too
little confidence in their country's judiciary to make an
impartial ruling.
In addition to the deaths, the turmoil has left 250,000 people
homeless and damaged one of Africa's most promising economies.
Hopes for a solution had grown on Thursday after former U.N. chief
Kofi Annan brought Odinga and Kibaki together for their first
discussions on how to end the standoff. But those hopes were
dashed when the opposition grew angry over Kibaki calling himself
Kenya's "duly-elected" leader.
The United Nations should put more pressure on the two sides to
reach a settlement, Kiai said.
Both activists said Kenya needed far-reaching reforms to ensure
future elections are fair.
They also criticized Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental rights
watchdog based in New York, for singling out some opposition party
officials for helping organize what the group called "ethnic-based
violence" in Kenya's Rift Valley.
Kiai did not question the allegations. But he said the government
had also organized militia violence -- which was not mentioned in
a statement issued by Human Rights Watch on Thursday. He said he
had brought this up with the watchdog.
Kiai also urged the United States to issue travel bans on specific
Kenyan government and opposition "hardliners." He did not name any
of the people he would like to see blacklisted.
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