Photo: IRIN

Widespread violence resulted in the deaths of at least 1,200 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands

NAIROBI, 23 December 2011 (IRIN) – This holiday season Kenyans will be watching the International Criminal Court (ICC), awaiting a decision – expected between 23 December and January 2012 – on confirmation-of-charges hearings against the first three of six high-level suspects who allegedly bear the greatest responsibility for violence that erupted after the disputed 2007 presidential poll, leading to the deaths of at least 1,200 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands.

Below are 12 key events on Kenya’s journey to the ICC:

The Post-Election Violence (PEV): Following the 30 December 2007 presidential election results, then opposition leader Raila Odinga (now prime minister) and his supporters reject the declared victory of incumbent Mwai Kibaki (now president), alleging rigging. Protests degenerate into widespread violence with calm only returning after the formation of a coalition government in February 2008.

23 May 2008: The Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence (CIPEV) is set up and mandated to investigate the violence, the conduct of state security agencies in their handling of it and to make recommendations concerning these and other matters.

October 2008: CIPEV, popularly referred to as the “Waki Commission” after the chairman, appeal judge Phillip Waki, releases a report, which concludes that the post-election violence “was more than a mere juxtaposition of citizens-to-citizens opportunistic assaults [but] systematic attacks on Kenyans based on their ethnicity and their political leanings”. The report calls for the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute the post-election violence crimes. In late 2008/early 2009, attempts to establish a special tribunal fail. Chants such as “Don’t be vague, go to the Hague” became popular, with most citizens expressing a distrust of the local justice system.

16 July 2009: An envelope with a list of persons who could be implicated in the violence and documents compiled by CIPEV is handed over to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, at The Hague. On 5 November 2009, Moreno-Ocampo notifies the ICC president of his intention to submit a request for the start of an investigation into Kenya’s PEV. The ICC presidency issues the “Decision assigning the situation in the Republic of Kenya to Pre-Trial Chamber 11″ on 6 November. This was followed by a 26 November 2009 request by the prosecutor to initiate investigations in Kenya.

31 March 2010: The  ICC Chamber, by majority, concurs with the prosecutor that the alleged crimes against humanity occurred in Kenya, paving the way for the PEV investigations for the period between 1 June 2005 (when the Rome Statute ratifying the court entered into force in Kenya) and 26 November 2009 (the date of the filing of the Prosecutor’s Request).

Photo: Boniface Mwangi/IRIN

Prime Minister Raila Odinga (left), President Mwai Kibaki (centre) and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan after the signing of an agreement on the formation of a coalition government in 2008

15 December 2010: The list of the “Ocampo six” is released. Moreno-Ocampo then requests the court to issue summonses to Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Industrialization Minister Henry Kosgey, Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Muthaura and former education minister William Ruto, as well as former police commissioner Mohamed Hussein Ali and radio journalist Joshua Arap Sang, to voluntarily appear before the ICC for their alleged responsibility in the commission of crimes against humanity.

8 March 2011: Pre-Trial Chamber II issues, by majority, summonses for the six suspects to appear before the court.

31 March 2011: Kenya challenges the admissibility of the ICC cases, arguing in a submission to the Court that as a result of the adoption of a new constitution and ongoing judicial reforms, it is now capable of investigating the six suspects itself.

7 and 8 April 2011: Ruto, Kosgey, and Sang – case one; and Muthaura, Kenyatta and Ali – case two – appear voluntarily before the Court.

30 May 2011: Pre-Trial Chamber II rules on the admissibility of the cases against the six.

30 August 2011: The ICC’s Appeals Chamber confirms the Pre-Trial Chamber II 30 May 2011 decision on the admissibility of the cases against the six suspects as no national investigations are ongoing into the same individuals.

1-8 September 2011 and 21 September to 5 October 2011: The confirmation of charges hearing is held for the suspects in cases one and two, respectively.

The ICC, established by the Rome Statute on 1 July 2002, has been conducting investigations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, Kenya and Sudan. Moreno-Ocampo is to be replaced by his deputy, Fatou Bensouda, when his term ends in 2012.

aw/mw source www.irinnews.org

By api

It may sound ok or not ok to say I feel for Hosni Mubarak. I really do now before the facts are laid out bare. It is sad to see what he is going through after sitting in, and wielding,  power for many years, and yet now so useless and dependent on help on a stretcher with no salutes for him to see as he was used to at all times.

Now it is only disgrace that he smells throughout the day and night – fearing he may be slaughtered at any time. I do not believe he is able to sleep well at night.

And at the same time as I feel for him, saddened to see him being wheeled into court to face corruption and misuse of power, now helpless, and can even be slapped by a baby or spit on by beggars, because he has no strength – he is ill - I just hope world leaders are being educated one way or another by this – so that they may understand that if they misuse power, when you fall from grace, their former servants who used to worship them and all the subjects they may have ruled will spit on them in happiness.

This makes me think, may be it is not fair after all to feel for this man – Mubarak!

Leaders who misrule their people deserve painful punishment. He is lucky that he is only being humiliated, not sexually assaulted and killed as Gaddafi or as Saddam Hussein who was unceremoniously hanged like a cat while being abused. He ended up his rule hanging there with no soldiers saluting him.

Sad, but real. and dictators deserve no less.

End

By api

The Northern Korean government will not change policies towards the South after the recent death of their leader Kim Jing-il.

His son who took over the reigns of power recently has affirmed he will follow his father’s footsteps. The world expected he would change the affairs of the country because of his young age, but it seems this will not happen. The young man is surrounded by military hard-liners who would like to keep the status-quo.

The 27-year old leader will now have to use his time to study what the military wants him to do in order to stick to the tradition of the north – that of being a mysterious nation on earth, where its citizens are allowed to know as little as possible about what takes place around them.

End

ASIA: Natural disasters becoming costlier than ever

Photo: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN

2011 was another year of disasters for the region

BANGKOK,  – Natural disasters in Asia in 2011 could well prove to be the costliest ever, experts say.

“Never before has this world suffered so much economic loss due to natural disaster, most of which has been in Asia and the Pacific,” Sanjay Srivastava, UN regional adviser for disaster risk reduction, told IRIN in Bangkok.

Of the global US$270 billion of economic losses to natural disasters in 2011, 90 percent was in Asia, he said.

From earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, to heavy flooding in Australia and Asia, economic losses in the first nine months of 2011 came to $259 billion, of which only about $52 billion was insured, according to Munich Re, a global insurance company which covers natural disasters.

The $220 billion of damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan accounted for the bulk of the losses, according to Srivastana.

In addition, “the unprecedented flooding in South-East Asian countries this year is estimated to have caused a cumulative production loss of about $6.3 billion or 0.9 percent of the combined gross domestic product [GDP] of Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam,” said a 9 December statement by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the UN’s regional development arm for the Asia-Pacific region.

“The costliest natural catastrophe [in Southeast Asia] may be the Thailand floods with overall economic losses in the billions,” said Michael Able, a spokesman for Munich Re. See Thai Slideshow:

Yet less than 9 percent of costs in the Asia Pacific region were insured, his organization says.

While economic and human risks are high due to increasing urban populations, insurance coverage in many countries in the region remains too low to effectively protect against hazards.

“Most of the burden will fall on the state which will have to cover recovery and rehabilitation, including the pressure to address the challenge of reducing future risks,” said Sanny Jegillos, the UN Development Programme’s regional coordinator for disaster risk reduction.

Population increases

“With growth in population, continued urbanization in exposed areas and increasing wealth, we also expect economic losses to rise further,” said Gerd Henghuber, a climate change and renewable energy specialist with Munich Re.

Forty-three percent of Asian populations are urban dwellers and the region is home to half of the world’s largest cities. “The stark reality is that disaster impacts in urban settings are felt much more intensely than in the past,” said the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in its 2020 strategy report.

Moreover, economic losses in the region are likely to hit the poor hardest, said Srivastava.

“To date, the region has borne the brunt of natural catastrophe losses. There is an urgent need for wider natural catastrophe insurance coverage,” said Henghuber.

At the same time, unless governments incorporate disaster risk reduction into development plans, economic losses will rise in the future, according to Jegillos, who added: “Investments in disaster risk reduction are investments in development.”

dm/ds/cb
source www.irinnews.org