Word: annan
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Kenya at War with Itself It began with a disputed election that sparked ethnic violence. On Jan. 29, the killing of an opposition lawmaker led to still more bloodshed. Kofi Annan can get the two candidates to meet, but who will control their henchmen...
...hundreds of thousands of lives. For one thing, Kenya contains many ethnic groups - 42, as compared to two in Rwanda - and none constitutes more than about 20% of the population. And the country's political leaders are currently talking, under the mediating hand of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, with a view to heading off the slide into catastrophe. Still, there are clear signs that the tribal conflict is now taking an increasingly organized form, which U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer characterized as "clear ethnic cleansing." As in the conflicts in what was once Yugoslavia...
...talks, mediated by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, began with President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga attending a ceremony that was shown in real time on television despite a government ban on live broadcasts that has been maintained since shortly after the disputed December 27 vote. "We all have multiple identities but I hope you see yourselves as Kenyans first," Annan said. "To the leaders gathered here today, I say that the people want you to take charge of the situation and do whatever possible to halt the downward spiral that is threatening this beautiful and prosperous...
...Annan predicted that Kenya would only need a month to resolve the immediate political crisis and a year to solve the larger issues that have lingered - and sometimes been fomented by Kenyan politicians - since independence. Yet while Odinga and Kibaki have both said they want to negotiate, neither has shown any real commitment to resolving the crisis: Kibaki insists his election as President is non-negotiable, while Odinga says he will accept nothing but a new vote...
Still, amid the violence, there was some hope that Annan's mediation could lead to a compromise at last after a month of bloodletting. The death toll is now difficult to estimate, but it is believed that some 850 people have been killed since the vote, with about 150 of them killed since Friday, when Kikuyus launched what appeared to have been revenge attacks in Nakuru. "Today our country is under serious threat of sliding into anarchy," parliamentary speaker Kenneth Marende said...