Tsvangirai carries the can

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President Mwai Kibaki and Premier Raila Odinga held urgent talks on 23 June in Harambee ('All pull together') House with the Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review to prevent former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan from handing a list of the December 2007 post-election violence perpetrators to the International Criminal Court. Annan told Africa Confidential that he would give the list to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo if a local tribunal is not set up by August. A special tribunal would require constitutional reforms to go ahead, and behind the scenes Kibaki and Odinga want to identify any loopholes which would allow them to create a tribunal with international and local judges without parliamentary approval. A method that would bypass Parliament would certainly face domestic legal challenges but would provide much needed delays. The most unlikely option is just to let Annan hand over the sealed list of accused to the ICC. Moreno-Ocampo, who says the ICC has begun a preliminary examination of the Kenya cases, will meet Kenyan legal officials on 1 July. Another option is to try to pass the constitutional admendments to allow a tribunal to be formed, but that is unlikely with Parliament in recess again on 25 June. ODM and PNU party leaders have little latitude to force MPs to cooperate. Such measures already failed to pass in March; some MPs do not trust the local justice system’s ability to rule independently while others seek to protect powerful friends.