ICC Kenyan minister to discuss election violence: court

THE HAGUE (AFP) — Kenya's justice minister will discuss the 2007 post-election violence there with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Friday, the court said.

"The Kenyan Minister of Justice, Mr Mutula Kilonzo, will pay an official visit to the ICC tomorrow, July 3, 2009," a court statement said Thursday.

"The prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo will hold private consultations with the Kenyan Minister of Justice on alleged crimes committed in the context of post-election violence."

The court did not provide any further details on the nature or content of the talks.

Kilonzo and a delegation would also be received by ICC president Sang-Hyun Song, said the statement.

"President Song will take the opportunity to show his appreciation of Kenya?s sustained commitment and co-operation to the work of the Court since ratifying the Rome Statute."

Some 1,500 people were killed in a matter of weeks following presidential polls in December 2007 in which the then opposition chief Raila Odinga accused President Mwai Kibaki of having stolen the vote.

Odinga is now prime minister under a power-sharing deal.

The government has yet to act on the recommendations of its own inquiry last October that a special tribunal be set up to try those thought responsible.

In June, former UN chief Kofi Annan called for Kenya to set up a special court to try suspects, or have them face justice before the ICC.

The same month, Amnesty International accused the government of having done nothing to end the impunity enjoyed by police and security forces for abuses they carried out during the post-electoral violence.

The ICC is the world's only independent, permanent court with the jurisdiction to try genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.