From: Judy Miriga
Good People !!!
The following Chinese statement directed to UK and US sounds challenging and provocative and it is unacceptable.
Chinese interests in Kenya are corrupt and toxic. Their activities are against public interest and mandate and are not within the policy establishment of the Constitution of Kenya.
The kind of direct outburst shows they are afraid their butt-naked will be exposed along with their illegal special business interest network that have brought pain and sufferings to the people of Kenya. Their influence in Kenya has not brought anything good but destruction on fundamental fabric of livelihood and survival. They are afraid they shall be exposed at the ICC Hague on matters that are of Human Rights Crime, Violation, Abuse with Environmental pollution and that their butt will be on fire?????……..and are they therefore, sounding a threat to challenge US and UK……????
The Chinese must beware that US and UK have vested interest in Kenya for the good of both countries and that Kenya victims have rights for fair Justice where the law must be seen to be done in the most favorable and fair manner. It is therefore that, the Chinese Government must watch how they conduct themselves on matters that are of Public interest and mandate and watch how they engage and communicate.
Kenya’s security, livelihood and survival are paramount of crucial concern to the people of Kenya and the world; and no amount of conspiracy theories on fear factor, intimidation, manipulation or foul-play shall be tolerated.
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com
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Anger after Kenyan ICC trial witness ‘outed’ online
By Helen Vesperini
Published September 18, 2013
AFP
NAIROBI (AFP) – A woman who appeared as a protected witness in the crimes against humanity trial of Kenya’s vice president has been named by local media and bloggers, prompting a stark warning from the Hague-based tribunal.
The woman was the prosecution’s first witness in the case against William Ruto, and she delivered a harrowing testimony to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday. She was referred to only as “Witness P0536,” her face pixellated and voice distorted.
But within hours of the court session, relayed live on several Kenyan television stations, viewers began speculating on her real identity on Twitter and other social media.
By Wednesday, scores of posts on Twitter gave her supposed real name, while one Kenyan blogger and the website of a tabloid newspaper even published photographs they said were of the witness. Several comments also denounced the woman as a “liar.”
The ICC said it may take legal action.
“Any revelation of the identity of a witness whose identity has been protected… amounts to an offence,” the ICC’s presiding judge Chile Eboe-Osuji said. “Such conducts will be investigated and the culprits will be prosecuted.”
The judge said the warning applied to “everyone inside the courtroom, in the public gallery, in Kenya, and anywhere in the world,” and urged “members of the press, bloggers, social media members or participants and their web hosts… to desist from doing anything that would reveal or attempt to reveal the identity of protected witnesses.”
Rights groups were also furious.
Amnesty International said it was “deeply concerned”, urging “the ICC and the Kenyan authorities to take effective measures to protect the safety and well-being of this witness and her family.”
“The publication, if correct, amounts to a serious breach of an order made by ICC Judges barring the disclosure of the identity of the first witness,” Amnesty’s Deputy Africa Director Sarah Jackson told AFP.
The Kenyan Human Rights Commission, an independent NGO, said other witnesses could now back out of the trial.
“Now that a witness has been identified it will be difficult to assure others that they are their family members will be safe. And in Kenya, it’s not just the nuclear family: there are aunts, uncles, cousins,” said spokeswoman Beryl Aidi.
“Witnesses are bound to feel that their family and their extended family may be in danger and might want to withdraw.”
‘Risk of collapse’
The witness had broken down in the Hague court as she recounted how a machete-wielding mob of “around 3,000” youths had trapped some 2,000 people hiding inside a church and set it ablaze.
The prosecution alleges the resulting massacre was part of a plan of ethnic violence orchestrated by Ruto to “satisfy his thirst for power” after disputed 2007 elections. In all, more than 1,000 people died in the post-poll unrest, the worst since Kenya’s independence in 1963.
The ICC, which has also charged Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta for allegedly masterminding a campaign of murder, rape, persecution and deportation. His trial is due to start in November, and like Ruto he contests the charges.
According to a Western source, who asked not to be identified, around one-third of the witnesses originally scheduled to testify for the prosecution in the Ruto case have pulled out.
“The risk of collapse is credible,” the source said.
Kenyan political scientist Mutahi Ngunyi said the exposure was a major setback for ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
“The ICC prosecutor is extremely naive because she assumed that putting the witness behind a curtain and distorting the voice was enough,” he told AFP, noting that the court’s first trial, that of DR Congo warlord Thomas Lubanga, had also been dogged by witness protection issues when former child soldiers were initially expected to testify in court with him present.
In an interview prior to the start of the Ruto trial, Richard Dowden, a writer, journalist and head of the Royal Africa Society, said the ICC risked being severely damaged.
“If the cases… were dropped because of witnesses who appeared credible, and were taken by the ICC to be credible, have withdrawn, then I think the credibility of the ICC would take a big hit because they were not able to protect the witnesses,” he said.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/18/anger-after-kenyan-icc-trial-witness-outed-online/#ixzz2fX4hfinG
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Woman: My life is in danger for being branded as ICC witness in Kenya’s deputy pres. trial
Published September 19, 2013
Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya – A Kenyan woman says she fears for her life after her photo was circulated on social media and on blogs claiming she was the first witness — whose identity was hidden — to testify against Kenya’s deputy president during his trial at the International Criminal Court.
Rahab Muthoni says she reported her fears to police late Wednesday.
The attempt to reveal the identity of the first witness prompted the presiding judge in the ICC trial of William Ruto to issue a stern warning Wednesday against witness intimidation and revealing the names of protected witnesses testifying in the case.
Ruto, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and broadcaster Joshua Sang face crimes against humanity charges for allegedly orchestrating the postelection violence in 2007-08 that killed more than 1,000 people.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/19/woman-my-life-is-in-danger-for-being-branded-as-icc-witness-in-kenya-deputy/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2fX5cExPb
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Chinese President differs with US and BRITAIN over UHURU/ RUTO’s ICC trial – End the cases UNCONDITIONALLY!
By staff02/09/2013 09:47:00 // News | Africa | Kenya | Chinese President differs with US and BRITAIN over UHURU/ RUTO’s ICC trial – End the cases UNCONDITIONALLY!
The Kenyan DAILY POSTPolitics06:47
Monday September 2, 2013 – The Chinese President, Xi Jinping, has strongly differed with United States and Britain over the trials of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy, William Ruto, at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In a statement to the ICC on Friday, the Chinese President said the Chinese people support the deferral of cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto to Nairobi, saying the country has a good judicial mechanism to prosecute cases of such magnitude.
When contacted on Sunday, the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi explained China’s position on the ICC cases against the two Kenyan leaders.
“The Chinese Government understands the concerns of the Kenyan Government over the ICC cases and supports efforts by the Kenyan Government to put these cases to an end,” Said Shifan Wu, a spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi said.
“We hope the ICC can fully respect Kenya’s judicial sovereignty.” The spokesman added.
This is a big reprieve to Uhuru and Ruto since China has veto power (One veto vote at the UN Security Council) and the cases can easily be deferred to Kenya.
USA and Britain had initially opposed the move and with China supporting it now it is up to the court to decide the venue.
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News / Africa
Rights Activists Urge Obama to Prevent Sudan Leader’s UN Visit
September 19, 2013
Omar al-Bashir speaks during a news conference with Umma Party leader and former PM Al-Sadiq Al Mahadi. August 2013.
UNITED NATIONS — Hollywood actors George Clooney, Don Cheadle and Mia Farrow and other human rights activists on Thursday urged U.S. President Barack Obama to do everything in his power to prevent Sudan’s indicted president from attending the U.N. General Assembly.
The appeal was part of a letter addressed to Obama and signed by more than 20 activists.
World leaders gather in New York next week for the opening of the 193-nation assembly’s annual general debate. Khartoum has said Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court for suspected genocide and other war crimes in Sudan’s western Darfur region, wants to attend.
Washington says it has received Bashir’s visa application and described the request as “deplorable.” However, the United States is not a member of the Hague-based ICC, so the court would not be legally bound to cooperate. The United States also has a special agreement that allows leaders of U.N. member states to attend the General Assembly.
Rights activists outraged
The idea of a war criminal indictee attending the General Assembly sparked outrage among human rights activists.
“Our immigration laws prohibit admitting perpetrators of genocide and extrajudicial killings into our country, and it is unprecedented for someone wanted by the International Criminal Court for the crime of genocide to travel to the United States,” the letter said.
“While we recognize that the U.S. government is obliged to facilitate President Bashir’s visit under the U.N. Headquarters Agreement, we urge you to do everything in your power to prevent the trip,” it said.
The text of the letter was made public by the Enough Project, an anti-genocide group whose co-founder John Prendergast, a former U.S. State Department official, is among the signatories.
Sudan says charges overblown
Sudan dismisses the ICC charges and says reports of mass killings in Darfur were exaggerated. It refuses to recognize the court, which it says is part of a Western plot against it.
Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.
A trip to the United States could be risky for Bashir, who has limited his travel mostly to African neighbors and Arab allies since the court ordered member countries in 2009 and 2010 to detain him if he entered their territories.
Several U.N. diplomats told Reuters they were surprised by Bashir’s request to come to the United States. One Latin American ambassador said it was a “travesty of international justice.” The U.S. mission to the United Nations did not have an immediate reaction to the letter to Obama.
A case for US courts?
The activists said the U.S. Justice Department should explore the possibility of a criminal case against Bashir under U.S. law, which allows for anyone on U.S. soil to be prosecuted for genocide, regardless of where the crimes were committed.
They also suggested that the United States offer Bashir only minimal protection required under the U.N. Headquarters Agreement, a 1947 pact between the U.S. government and the United Nations, and urge states to deny landing rights for Bashir’s plane.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters in Washington on Thursday that “there are a variety of considerations in play with respect to President Bashir’s visa request, including the outstanding warrant for his arrest.” She did not provide details.
Mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms in Darfur in 2003 against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, complaining of neglect and discrimination.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died since the conflict erupted in 2003, but Khartoum rejects that figure.
Not without precedent
It would not be the first time a controversial figure who displeased the U.S. government appeared at the U.N. General Assembly session. In 1974, Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, addressed the General Assembly wearing a holster and denounced Zionism.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro blasted U.S. imperialism in a four-hour speech to the General Assembly in 1960. Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the United States and Israel in recent years, once suggesting that the U.S. government may have orchestrated the September 11, 2001, attacks.
http://www.voanews.com/content/rights-activists-urge-obama-to-prevent-sudan-leaders-un-visit/1753482.html