Small step forward in Kenya
The African Union announced on Thursday that Mr. Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations, is taking over the role played by John Kufuor, the chairman of the African Union and president of Ghana. Mr. Kufuor spent the past two days in Kenya trying to broker a truce between the government and opposition leaders to end the crisis here, which erupted after flawed elections last month and went on to claim hundreds of lives.
Mr. Kufuor failed to get the two sides to even meet, but he insisted all was not lost.
“Both sides agreed there should be an end to the violence and they also agreed there should be dialogue,” Mr. Kufuor said.
Mr. Annan will lead a panel of African dignitaries who will arrive in the coming days to try to bring the two sides together, Mr. Kufuor said.
There was no immediate comment from Mr. Annan about the new role.
Many diplomats here are pessimistic that a solution will be found anytime soon because neither Mwai Kibaki, Kenya’s president, nor Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, is budging. Both claim to have won the presidential election on Dec. 27. Western observers have said that there was widespread evidence that the president’s party interfered with the vote tallying process and rigged the results to stay in power.
1:53 PM ::
2 Comments:
i love this blog :) burçlar
No real parallel to Rwanda...too many differences exist between the two countries (2 v. 40 ethnic groups being key) and no long run-up to a pre-planend conflict that was supported by western powers (each side) that were pursuing agendas. Why is it when there's violence in Africa the notion is to parallel, or try to parallel, said violence with Rwanda? There's sectarian violence in India/Paksitan/Indonesia/and central America all the time too don't forget.
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