NETHERLANDS / FILE: Hague court prosecutor to investigate Kenya violence

Record ID: 361687

  • Title: NETHERLANDS / FILE: Hague court prosecutor to investigate Kenya violence
  • Date: 2nd April 2010
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (FILE - DECEMBER 31, 2007) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) PEOPLE FLEEING AS TRUCKLOADS OF POLICE DRIVE TOWARDS FIRES BURNING ON ROAD BURNING BARRICADE NEAR ELECTION POSTER POLICE FACING PROTESTERS POLICE FIRING TEAR GAS AT PROTESTERS PROTESTERS HIDING BY SIDE OF ROAD, POLICE MOVING WOMEN ON POLICEMAN BEATING PROTESTER WITH STICK POLICE FORCING PROTESTERS
  • Embargoed: 17th April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Reuters ID: LVA45J3ESTAI49W0H9ZACDK4JAZ4
  • Story Text: The International Criminal Court will launch an investigation into clashes that followed Kenya's 2007 presidential election, the court's chief prosecutor said on Thursday (April 1).
    ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has submitted a confidential list of 20 names of those said to bear the gravest responsibility.
    The prosecutor has said that Kenyan political leaders organised and financed attacks on civilians. He said he hoped to complete the bulk of his investigation this year and to file at least two cases.
    "To contribute to the prevention of crimes during the next elections, we must proceed promptly. We will. There's a list of 20 suspects but it is not binding. We envision at least two cases against one to three persons in each case," he told a news conference at The Hague. "We aim to finalise the bulk of investigation during 2010".
    Judges at the ICC approved a probe on Wednesday (March 31) into the 2007-2008 Kenyan violence, in which authorities have said more than 1,200 were killed, multiple hundreds raped and more than 350,000 forcibly displaced.
    Moreno-Ocampo said that many of the rape cases have not been reported.
    "The current numbers are that there are a thousand rapes, however in some areas we have a record showing that for each rape recorded, another nine rapes happened, so if this is true in the whole country there were at least ten thousand rapes. So, we can not ignore that, we'll investigate that," he said.
    The prosecutor told Reuters he hoped to have filed the first cases and to have completed confirmation hearings in those cases by the end of 2011, with trials to start in 2012 or thereafter. Kenya's next national elections are due in 2012.
    "We have to collect evidence to finally decide on the names of those who could go to trial, it's just the beginning. Our duty is to investigate both incriminating and exonerating information. So persons under suspicion can request to be interviewed by my office. They can provide explanations they consider appropriate," he said.
    In a court filing earlier this month, Moreno-Ocampo said senior political and business leaders from Prime Minister Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) were "guided by political objectives to retain or gain power".
    In Wednesday's statement, Moreno-Ocampo said Kibaki and Odinga's "commitment to justice" and co-operation was crucial.
    The ethnic clashes shattered Kenya's image as a stable centre for trade and tourism and the economic powerhouse of east Africa.
    On a visit to Kenya late last year, Moreno-Ocampo said he believed he had a strong case against a few individuals and was pursuing the investigation because Kenya's leaders had decided against referring the case themselves to The Hague.
    In Kenya, Kenya's justice minister Mutula Kilonzo welcomed the decision.
    Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who mediated an end to the bloody conflict, warned that unless the architects of the killings were brought to book, there was a serious risk violence would erupt again at the next presidential election in 2012.
    The ICC, established in 2002, is the world's first permanent court set up to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and other major human rights violations.
    The court is trying several individuals for war crimes or crimes against humanity in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur, and has an outstanding arrest warrant for Sudan's president Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
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