AU head plans Kenya mediation
2008-01-02 16:22
Accra - Ghanaian president and African
Union chairperson John Kufuor is planning a mediation mission to
Kenya to help end ethnic killing triggered by a disputed
election, aides said on Wednesday.
The United States and former colonial ruler Britain called
for restraint and dialogue as the death toll from days of
violence topped 300, fuelling fears of growing instability in
Kenya and East Africa as a whole.
Ghanaian Foreign Minister Akwasi Osei-Adjei said Kufuor was
waiting to speak by telephone with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki
before deciding whether to send a delegation to the east African
country to mediate or go himself.
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga accuses Kibaki of
rigging his re-election in last week's closely-fought poll.
'No word from Kibaki'
The
disputed outcome has sparked ethnic killings in a country often
seen as a bulwark of stability in a volatile part of Africa.
"We still haven't heard from President Kibaki yet. The
president (Kufuor) has already spoken with opposition leader
Odinga, and to be a good mediator we think we have to speak to
both parties," Osei-Adjei told Reuters.
But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who appealed on
Tuesday to Kufuor and former Sierra Leonean President Ahmad
Tejan Kabbah, the head of the Commonwealth's electoral observer
mission, to intervene in Kenya, said Kufuor would go in person.
"I have just talked to President Kufuor of Ghana ... I
welcome his decision, that he will announce later today, that he
will go to Kenya. He will meet President Kibaki and Mr Odinga
tomorrow," Brown said in a statement.
"He will call on them to urge their supporters to end
violence and he will work with the parties to ensure that
reconciliation is brought about and perhaps a chance that some
of the people who are at the moment opponents may join a
government of national unity," he said.
Earlier Kufuor's office issued a statement asking the two
men to restrain their supporters to avert further violent
clashes that could only lead to Kenya's destabilisation.
Ethnic bloodletting
Human rights groups say at least 300 people have been killed
since the December 27 election as political rivalries have spilled
over into ethnic bloodletting between Kibaki's large Kikuyu
tribe and Odinga's minority Luo and allied tribes.
About 30 villagers, some only children, were killed on
Tuesday when a mob set light to a church near the town of
Eldoret where hundreds of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe had taken
refuge, stoking fears of a major ethnic conflict.
Brown's Foreign Secretary David Miliband and US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice issued a joint statement on Wednesday
calling for restraint and intense political dialogue.
France, Germany and Japan have all called for calm.
Miliband said events in Kenya could have repercussions in
neighbouring nations and appealed for calm.
"It is clear that there are major responsibilities on
Kenya's political leaders both in respect of the violence that
is being perpetrated by some of their followers and in respect
of the need to reach out and find common ground for a country
... that is obviously deeply divided," he told BBC radio.
"We need all legal and political avenues to be explored ...
We don't know who won. There are very serious allegations of
irregularities on both sides," he said.