Clinton, the Pot and the Kettle

Hillary Clinton is in Kenya, lecturing people about democracy and accountability and various other things that the US is hardly in a position to moralize about. She wants the Kenyan government to set up a tribunal to try those involved in the civil disturbances following the elections last year. Well, who doesn’t? Everyone, except those with something to hide or something to gain, wants justice, wants the people involved to be punished, wants the simmering violence that still goes on to stop, wants a stable government.

But when will the US administration be brought to account for the lies that resulted in several countries wiping out hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians? Many of the people involved are currently in comfortable positions, doing very well for themselves. Several multinationals have made enormous profits from the Iraq war and various other wars that have been started and stoked up by the US. Will they, one day, be brought to justice? I doubt it.

What sort of moral authority does the US have, given the part they played in most of the serious wars of the twentieth century? The Kenyan government has always been very cosy with the West and with the US in particular. When fighting broke out after the 2007/08 elections, news reports remarked on how surprising it was that such a thing could happen in Kenya, which had been so peaceful before. An estimated 500 people were assassinated in extra-judicial killings in the six months prior to the election. The West just chose to ignore these events.

As for suggesting that politicians and other parties should be sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC), how are the Americans in a position to be insisting on this? They (somebody called Clinton, actually) reluctantly signed up to the ICC but it was never ratified and this signature was quickly suspended under the Bush administration. Since then, the US has got most countries to sign bilateral immunity agreements so they cannot be prosecuted by the court. The last country that should be pushing anyone into the ICC is America.

I notice Clinton is also going to South Africa, Angola, Congo and Nigeria, countries as well known for their human rights records as for their vast mineral and oil wealth. Is it cynical of me to doubt the motives of Clinton and the US? If it is cynical to criticize cynicism, then I am guilty of cynicism. Mr William Samoei Ruto, who is one of the people implicated in the post election violence, is reported to have told Clinton that he has not yet been trained by the US. But I think he has learned a lot about impunity from them.