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Security Council urges Kenyan
leaders to implement power-sharing deal without delay
AP
2008-03-01
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council welcomed the new
power-sharing agreement in Kenya and urged President Mwai Kibaki
and opposition leader Raila Odinga to implement it «in full and
without delay.
Odinga and Kibaki struck a deal Thursday that will give the
opposition leader a new job as prime minister. Kibaki said he is
reconvening parliament March 6 to begin work on the needed
constitutional changes.
Odinga accused Kibaki of stealing a Dec. 27 vote, and their
dispute sparked fighting that killed more than 1,000 people and
tarnished the reputation of this once-stable east African nation.
Security Council members welcomed «the `Agreement on the
Principles of Partnership of the Coalition Government' ... to
resolve the crisis in Kenya following the disputed elections.» It
strongly commended the parties and the panel led by former U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan that mediated the dispute.
«The members of the council express their full support to Mwai
Kibaki and Raila Odinga in forming a new government and call for
the agreement to be implemented in full and without delay,» the
council said in a statement issued late Friday by the current
president, Panama's U.N. Ambassador Ricardo Arias.
The council urged Kenya's leaders «to foster reconciliation,
guarantee human rights and address the longer-term issues which
the crisis has brought to the forefront.
Council members also backed efforts to address the widespread
violence, including ethnically motivated attacks, and reiterated
that those responsible must be brought to justice.
Odinga said Friday in Nairobi that he expects the new
power-sharing agreement to succeed in ending the bloody dispute
over the presidential election.
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