Rights group: no amnesty for Kenya crisis culprits

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A truth, justice and reconciliationcommission planned to help heal wounds left by Kenya's crisisshould not grant amnesty to those behind the worst killings, alocal rights group said on Thursday.

Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan is leading talks to endturmoil triggered by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed December27 re-election that has killed at least 1,000 people anduprooted 300,000 more, shattering the country's peaceful image.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga accuses Kibaki's team ofrigging the vote.

Both sides have agreed in principle to some form ofpower-sharing and are now focusing on the details behind closeddoors at a safari lodge, sources close to the discussions say.

They may also set up a South African-style truth commissionto investigate widespread rights abuses including ethnicattacks and the killing of protesters by police.

Applauding moves to investigate the bloodshed, thegovernment-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights(KNCHR) said ringleaders should not be forgiven.

"The worst perpetrators and planners of the types ofviolations that have taken place over the recent weeks mustnever be exempted," KNCHR commissioner Hassan Omar Hassan tolda news conference. "To do so would be a travesty of justice."

The group's call added to international pressure for theperpetrators of violence to be held accountable.

Various Western nations have threatened travel bans orfreezing of assets against guilty parties, and have also saidthat anyone derailing the Annan talks will face "consequences".

Kenya's crisis has shocked locals, neighbouring states andworld powers alike, crippling its tourism industry and dentingone of Africa's most promising economies.

Any truth commission must study past crimes, Hassan said,including grand corruption and bad governance. He accusedauthorities of ignoring signs of growing inter-ethnic tensions.

"We have lived in collective denial that there were seriousstructural fault lines in Kenya's make-up," he said. "Thisfacade of national unity has regrettably been laid bareresulting in gross violations of human rights."

The trouble has exposed deep rifts over land, power andwealth that date from the British colonial era and have beenstoked by some Kenyan politicians ever since.

The talks are supposed to address those longer-standingissues in the next year, but Annan has said he hopes for animmediate political solution within days.

Both sides say that will take the form of a power-sharingdeal, but the details are far from clear. Government officialshave said they will only share power in the form of cabinetappointments to be made by Kibaki himself.

(Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Elizabeth Piper)

(For special coverage from Reuters on Kenya's crisis see:

http://africa.reuters.com/elections/kenya/)