By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 9 -- On Kenya's request to the UN Security Council to defer for a year or even terminate the International Criminal Court proceeding against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy President William Ruto, the Security Council will meet Thursday afternoon, a Council Permanent Representative has exclusively told Inner City Press.
A Deputy Permanent Representative from another delegation confirmed it, calling it the African position but predicting European "no's." And the US?
Their argument to the Security Council is that the two elected officials' absence could result in instability spilling over into neighboring countries.
The timing was ironic, as Thursday morning the Council was meeting about Sudan, whose President Omar al Bashir is under indictment by the ICC. One expects some opposition to Kenya's request to be a matter of this precedent.
There was a recent outcry when Bashir visited Chad. But still France and the UN stand ready to use Chad in Mali, as "peacekeepers." UN peacekeepers have been killed, an ICC crime, in both Abyei and Eastern Congo this week.
Kenya could, of course, compare the highest reported death count attributable to Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto to not only the murky figures in Syria, but those in Sri Lanka in 2009. But to some, once the indictment bell is rung, it should not be UNrung, or even paused.
Any discussion at the UN of impunity is in the context of the UN tersely dismissing all claims it brought cholera to Haiti. Watch this site.
