Monday, October 25, 2010

ICC in the Media, Update #10

On Tuesday the ICC rejected an appeal from former Congolese Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, accused of committing numerous crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Central African Republic. This development clears the way for his trial, which is set to begin on November 22, 2010 in the ICC's Trial Chamber III. Back in Kenya, the government is still scrutinizing minutes from secret high-level security meetings during the post-election violence period, determining whether it should release them to the ICC as requested several weeks ago. The government argues that it can withhold the minutes if they threaten national security, but there is some question of whether they in fact do pertain to security issues. On Tuesday Kenya's President Kibaki suspended education minister William Ruto, who is facing corruption charges, although it is widely thought that the suspension resulted from the belief that Ruto is one of the ICC's prime suspects in the post-election violence events. In other news, human rights groups are protesting the possibility of Omar al-Bashir of Sudan visiting Kenya for the Intergovernmental Authority on Government meeting (Igad). They argue that a second visit would send negative message of Kenya's committment to ending impunity, and would "send damaging signals to victims of mass atrocity in Darfur."
Photo Credit: CNN.

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