The Special Court on Sierra Leone, after five years of trial, has convicted Charles Taylor, a former president of Liberia, of crimes against humanity. Sitting at The Hague, the Court found that Charles Taylor had more than a hand in the civil war that wracked Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The civil war which saw the mass conscription of children into the fighting ranks of the rebel forces was a stain on the continent, even for a continent so used to pestilence and disasters on a biblical scale. The peoples of Liberia and Sierra Leone are well rid of a man who ensured that what was a relatively simple political dispute degenerated into a civil war that ruined the lives of millions upon millions. Mr Taylor's ill-gotten millions were no defense for the Court and now he sits in jail as he awaits sentencing. This is a lesson that the ICC Four should take to heart.
In 2007, Kenya held a general election and the presidential result was hotly contested. Few wish to remember that the seeds for the dispute were laid when President Kenyatta unilaterally decided to appoint commissioners to the Electoral Commission of Kenya, setting aside the 'gentleman's' agreement that allowed the Opposition a say in who was appointed to the ECK. Howls of rage from the Opposition guaranteed that there would be disputes regarding the results of the elections. When Samuel Kivuitu declared Mwai Kibaki the winner of the presidential election, and doing so under armed guard, Raila Odinga and ODM refused to accept the results. Fewer still wish to remember that Mwai Kibaki was staunchly defended by leading lights of the PNU alliance, not least of which was Martha Karua the NARK-K supremo. The scenes witnessed at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre were a throwback to the dark days of KANU elections.
William Ruto and his cohort from the Rift Valley were extremely vocal in their displeasure at the turn of events. When violence 'spontaneously' erupted in the Rift Valley, many attributed it to Raila Odinga's call for mass action even though he publicly called for an end to the violence. When marauding gangs began the process of ethnic cleansing in the Rift Valley, targetting persons deemed to be PNU supporters (primarily Kikuyus), the wheels had surely come off the wagon. But it was in the retaliatory attacks on ODM supporters that the seeds for the intervention of the international community were laid.
The interventions of the African Union, through its Panel of Eminent Personalities, led to the establishment of the Waki Commission and the Kriegler Commission. The Waki Commission eventually established that the violence that erupted after the elections results was neither spontaneous nor without sponsors. Mr Justice Waki and the Commission decided to prepare a list of the persons they deemed to be responsible for the violence, seal it and leave it to the former Secretary-General of the United Nations to deliver to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court if the Government of Kenya failed to establish a local mechanism to try the perpetrators of the violence.
Mwai Kibaki, the President, Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister, Martha Karua and her successor Mutula Kilonzo, the Minister for Justice and Gitobu Imanyara, the MP for Imenti Central, tried to bring Bills to Parliament to set up just a local tribunal, but the cohorts led by Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto stifled these attempts. It fell to Koffi Annan and the Prosecutor of the ICC to seize the matter and the results are there for us to see. Now, Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto find themselves in very deep waters with the convictions of Thomas Lubanga and Charles Taylor for crimes against humanity for the roles they played in the civil wars in Rwanda and Sierra Leone, respectively.
Mr Kenyatta ad Mr Ruto, since their indictments by the Court, have attempted to brow-beat it into dismissing the charges against them or, alternatively, to postpone their trials until after the general elections slated for March 2013. Refusing to admit that they were solely responsible for the cases being tried at the ICC, they have attempted to lay the blame variously on foreign powers and on Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister. Instead of concentrating on their defenses, they have spent more time whipping up tribal sentiments in order to influence the result of the coming general elections. Even when the suspects had the opportunity to put their best foot forward during the confirmation of charges hearings, Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto played to the Kenyan gallery by parading witnesses who were ultimately unpersuasive before the Judges of the ICC Pre-trial Chamber II. Now that the process is hurtling towards a trial date, they are doing all in their power to manage the political fall-out rather than prepare for their defenses.
What the international criminal judges have done is similar to what Sharad Rao's Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board has done: no matter how high your standing in society, you are accountable for your actions. We must remember that William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta are innocent until proven otherwise. However, if they are determined to base their defense on their standing in society, they will surely take note that international criminal law is no respecter of standing in society. It is time for them to organise themselves as properly as they may by instructing their lawyers to pursue every opportunity that presents itself to preserve their freedom. If it is their intention that they maneuvre the electorate to secure the government in their favour, they must look no further than the fate that has befallen the President of the Republic of the Sudan who has had the ignominy of having international warrants of arrest issued against him in the matter of the Darfur ethnic cleansing. All the oil in Turkana will not rescue them from this pickle.
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