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          African Leaders Support Call to Refer ICC Case Back to Kenya

   by Gabe Joselow

   African heads of state say the International Criminal Court case
   against Kenya's top leaders should be referred back to the East African
   nation's own courts.
   African leaders meeting at the AU summit Monday approved a proposal
   requesting the cases against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his
   deputy William Ruto be tried in Kenyan courts.
   The two leaders are facing separate charges of orchestrating the
   violence that followed the 2007 election.  More than 1,100 people were
   killed in inter-ethnic fighting across the country.
   The request was first submitted by African foreign ministers ahead of
   the summit, and was also approved by the AU executive council.
   Speaking to reporters Monday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam
   Desalegn said the ICC process was meant to punish leaders for
   atrocities and ill governance, but has unfairly targeted Africans.
   "...now the process has degenerated into some kind of race hunting,
   rather than an objective of taking care of those crimes as well as
   impunities," he said.
   ''AU Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the ICC should
   be a court of "last resort" and that Kenya's newly reformed judiciary
   is capable of trying the case.
   Nairobi-based human rights lawyer Harun Ndubi disagreed that Kenya is
   ready to handle the trials, and said not enough attention has been paid
   to the victims of the violence.
   "The African Union has not said anything in sympathy or empathy with
   the victims, except to say they want the cases to come back to Kenya
   when there is no existing mechanism for dealing with the post-election
   violence against the suspects," said Ndubi.
   The AU assembly also considered a report from the AU Peace and Security
   Council on regional crises, including the conflict in the eastern
   Democratic Republic of Congo between the M23 rebel movement and
   government forces.  Members of the Great Lakes region met on the
   sidelines of the summit to discuss the implementation of an agreement
   signed in February aimed at ending the violence.
   In his closing remarks, Hailemariam, who is also the current chair of
   the AU, said "unconstitutional changes of government continues to be a
   challenge," noting specifically the situations in Central African
   Republic, Guinea-Bissau and Niger.
   "While noting the importance of looking for political solutions to
   these problems, I have no doubt that the non-acceptance of
   unconstitutional changes of governance will remain our firm position,"
   he said.
   The AU summit follows celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the
   organization that would become the modern AU.
   The body is now considering a development agenda for the next 50 years,
   a plan known as Vision 2063.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/african-leaders-support-call-to-refer
   -icc-case-back-to-kenya/1669074.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/african-leaders-support-call-to-refer-icc-case-back-to-kenya/1669074.html