WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-02-05 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
by Bogonko Bosire
The Kofi Annan-led talks to end Kenya’s escalating political crisis were set to resume on Monday after weekend clashes left at least 70 dead mainly in the country’s western region.
The talks chaired by the former UN chief between representatives of President Mwai Kibaki and opposition chief Raila Odinga adjourned on Friday after they reached a deal aimed to end weeks of unrest that has claimed around 1 000 lives.
Over the weekend, police said 74 people died in three days of tribal fighting and a police crackdown in the western region.
| ‘It is necessary that we should have a peacekeeping deployment from the United Nations or AU’ |
Later on Sunday, an AFP photographer said hundreds of fighters armed with bows and arrows and rocks fought pitched battles there as police struggled to contain them.
Meanwhile, Kibaki and Odinga traded further barbs, maintaining their hardline positions.
Odinga claimed Kibaki robbed him of the presidency in closely fought December 27 elections amid widespread concerns from local and international observers over the vote-counting process.
The new deal called for illegal militias to be disbanded and for the investigation of all related crimes, including those allegedly committed by the police, who have allegedly killed scores of people.
Both sides also promised to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis, after killings and around 300 000 people being displaced.
| ‘We have a fall-back (plan)’ |
As thousands languished in makeshift displacement camps across the country, amid reports of rapes and fears of ethnic reprisals, a government newspaper advert reminded Kenyans: “you have a right to be wherever you choose in the country.”
The political unrest has stirred up latent ethnic clashes in addition to economic and land disputes.
Members of Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe suffered heavily in the first wave of violence at the hands of Odinga’s Luo tribe and other ethnic groups, but have since carried out numerous revenge attacks.
Ethnic fighting between villagers armed with bows and arrows, spears and machetes spiralled in western Kenya after the killing of David Kimutai Too in Eldoret on Thursday, the second opposition MP killed in two days.
Police said scores were killed on Friday and Saturday in clashes and a police crackdown in Nyanza province, and in Too’s home village of Ainamoi in the Rift Valley province and nearby localities.
While Ainamoi was deserted after a police crackdown on Sunday, tension remained high in nearby Nyanza.
Police trailed fighters after they razed more than 100 houses and a primary school, a police commander said, and the trading post of Chepilat was burned down overnight.
Arsonists burnt down a church overnight on Friday in Eldoret, causing no injuries. A total of four schools were burnt in the country – one overnight on Saturday near Eldoret and three others in western Kenya.
Odinga on Sunday called for the deployment of foreign peacekeepers, saying security forces were not impartial in crackdowns.
“It is necessary that we should have a peacekeeping deployment from the United Nations or the African Union because the police have often been misused and we do not have faith in the army to be neutral,” he told reporters in his hometown of Bondo, near Kisumu in western Kenya.
The Kenyan army has so far played a backseat role in the crisis, deployed to assist police in clearing road barricades and transporting humanitarian supplies to affected zones.
As the peace roadmap was inked on Friday, Kibaki insisted, in a speech in Ethiopia, that opposition protests over the election results be taken to court, and accused the opposition of instigating the violence.
Odinga rejected the claims and said Kibaki’s comments “undermined the mediation talks.”
He also hinted on Sunday that he had a contingency plan in case the talks should fail.
“We have a fall-back (plan),” he said, without elaborating.
The Kenyan talks are due to be joined by South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa – who chairs the African National Congress’s (ANC) Negotiating Commission. – Sapa-AFP
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20080204074345758C657799