Tuesday, May 14, 2013

On ICC, Kenya's 2d Letter To UNSC Now On Agenda May 16, ICP Learns, Amid Comoros Request for ICC Probe of Mavi Marmara



By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, May 14 -- After Kenya first wrote to the UN Security Council about the International Criminal Court cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, a length Council consultation took place on Thursday, May 9.
  Mid-day on May 10, Inner City Press asked the Security Council president for May, Kodjo Menan of Togo, for an update. He said that Kenya's Permanent Representative to the UN Kamau Macharia had indicate he would submit the second letter very shortly, even that day, Friday.
There was some delay, with some in the government including Attorney General Githu Muigai and even Ruto "disassociating" themselves from the letter. But on Tuesday, May 14 Kodjo Menan of Togo exclusively told Inner City Press that Kenya's second letter, after "checking with the capital," HAS come in, and will be discussed on Thursday.
  That will be a full week after the first discussion, in which a main issue was whether Kenya's Permanent Representative can meet and make his case to the full Council, or only to a working group. 
 Rwanda, whose Ambassador Eugene Richard Gasana led or initiative the push on this, said it would be insulting to refer a member state to a working group. A number of Council members supported and support this position. For more, see this previous Inner City Press analysis.
  Meanwhile the ICC prosecutor has just announced that the Union of Comoros has requested an ICC probe of the May 31, 2010 raid by Israel on the Mavi Marmara ship. Watch this site.