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Kenya enters key period in peace
deal negotiations
10. 02. 2008
NAIROBI (AFP) - Kenya's feuding parties on Sunday headed into a
decisive week of negotiations on a compromise deal to end the
conflict over disputed elections that has left more than 1,000
dead.
Chief mediator Kofi Annan hopes a settlement can be reached in the
coming days between the government and the opposition, whose row
over who won the presidential election in December ignited Kenya's
worst crisis since independence.
The eruption of rioting, police raids and tribal violence since
the December 27 vote has also displaced some 300,000 people,
shattering Kenya's image as one of Africa's most stable countries.
Negotiators for President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila
Odinga were to resume talks on Monday in a Nairobi hotel to hammer
out details of an agreement that could include the formation of a
power-sharing government.
"I think everyone realises that we have a serious problem in the
country," Annan, a former UN secretary general, said last week,
setting the stage for the crunch talks.
"We are all agreed that a political settlement is needed, that a
political settlement is necessary and we are working out the
details of such a settlement."
Launched nearly two weeks ago, Annan's mediation mission is seen
as Kenya's best hope for a political solution to end the violence
that has seen Kenyans killed at the hands of machete-wielding mobs,
burnt in churches and driven off their land.
Kenya descended into turmoil after the country's central elections
commission proclaimed 76-year-old Kibaki, in power since 2002,
winner of the election.
Odinga, 62, claimed he was cheated out of the presidency in a
rigged vote while international observers found massive
irregularities during the tallying of ballots from both sides.
Kibaki's tribe, the Kikuyu, suffered heavily in the first wave of
violence at the hands of Odinga's Luo tribe and other ethnic
groups, but there have since been numerous revenge attacks.
The violence has tapped into simmering resentment over land,
poverty and the dominance of the Kikuyu in Kenyan politics and
business since independence from Britain in 1963.
While Annan sought to push the sides into compromise, a string of
foreign government officials arrived in Nairobi to express support
for his effort and to warn of consequences if the talks failed.
The United States moved last week to slap visa restrictions on 13
Kenyan politicians and businessmen suspected of having a hand in
the violence, while Canada and Britain were considering similar
measures.
Piling pressure on the rival leaders to climb down from their
hardline stances, the UN Security Council issued a statement last
week calling on them to seek "dialogue, negotiation and compromise."
Speculation about the political deal has centred on the formation
of a national unity government in which leading opposition figures
could take ministerial posts.
Kenyan press reports have also said talks had zeroed in on a
package of reforms to election laws, the court system and the
constitution that would be enacted within a set timetable.
Annan has asked parliament to convene on Tuesday to be briefed on
details of a possible deal that could entail a raft of legislative
measures to try to restore faith in government.
In negotiations last week, the rival parties agreed to set up a
South African-style truth and reconciliation commission to try to
heal the wounds of the violence, as South Africa did after
apartheid.
"We must agree that Kenya will never be the same," said Dan Juma,
the deputy executive director of the Kenyan Human Rights
Commission.
"Kenya is very much polarized.. ethnic identity has been wounded.
It will take time to heal."
Citing improved security in the country, the security ministry on
Friday lifted a ban on political rallies, but said the gatherings
should not be used to incite violence.
The turmoil has delivered a crippling blow to Kenya's tourism
industry, the top foreign currency earner, while tea production
and agriculture have also been hard hit.
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