UNITED
NATIONS, May 9
-- On Kenya's
request to the
UN Security
Council to
defer for a
year or even
terminate the
International
Criminal Court
proceeding
against
President
Uhuru Kenyatta
and his Deputy
President
William Ruto,
the Security
Council will
meet Thursday
afternoon, a
Council
Permanent
Representative
has
exclusively
told Inner
City
Press.
A
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
from another
delegation
confirmed it,
calling it the
African
position but
predicting
European
"no's."
And the US?
Their
argument to
the Security
Council is
that the two
elected
officials'
absence could
result in
instability
spilling over
into
neighboring
countries.
The
timing was
ironic, as
Thursday
morning the
Council was
meeting about
Sudan, whose
President Omar
al Bashir is
under
indictment by
the ICC.
One expects
some
opposition to
Kenya's
request to be
a matter of
this
precedent.
There
was a recent
outcry when
Bashir visited
Chad. But
still France
and
the UN stand
ready to use
Chad in Mali,
as
"peacekeepers."
UN
peacekeepers
have been
killed, an ICC
crime, in both
Abyei and
Eastern Congo
this week.
Kenya
could, of
course,
compare the
highest
reported death
count
attributable
to Uhuru
Kenyatta and
William Ruto
to not only
the murky
figures in
Syria, but
those in Sri
Lanka in 2009.
But to some,
once
the indictment
bell is rung,
it should not
be UNrung, or
even paused.
Any
discussion at
the UN of
impunity is in
the context of
the UN
tersely
dismissing all
claims it
brought
cholera to
Haiti. Watch
this site.
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