Tribunal: Beware of wily politicians, warns lawyer

• Be wary of people who initially opposed the local court, but have changed tune, she says

She has stepped on the hottest spots in the world, and her hawk eyes have scanned critical evidence in some of the worst political upheavals in recent history.

For the 10 years, Ms Marieke Wierda has been prosecutor for special tribunals in crisis-torn countries, it has been all about justice for most of the of citizens following gross crimes against humanity by political leaders and militias.

Yet when she arrived in Kenya this week, the director of prosecutions at the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) found a political situation she had never encountered elsewhere.

Bungled presidential poll

“We are yet to deal with a crisis arising from a bungled presidential election, which then took an ethnic angle,” said the Dutch woman.

“All the global crises we have seen are unique in their own form and the Kenyan situation is no different.”

Ms Wierda flew in from her work station in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday at the invitation of the International Centre for Policy and Conflict (ICPC).

The following day, she addressed a charged conference on formation of a special local tribunal to try suspects of the post-election violence, as recommended by the Waki commission.

After the address, she told the Saturday Nation that “something is wrong” with the way Kenya is handling the local tribunal issues.

And it is difficult to ignore her words, given her experience with cases at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

As a young lawyer in 1997, Ms Wierda joined the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which was set up by the United Nation’s Security Council following the country’s disintegration in 1991. She worked there for three years.

When she joined ICTJ in 2001, her first assignment was in the Sierra Leone tribunal in which the bone of contention was if the truth and reconciliation commission should share evidence with the tribunal.

And three years ago, she was at the Iraq high tribunal in Baghdad which convicted former President Saddam Hussein. He was hanged.

Time in Uganda

Right now Ms Wierda is spending time in Uganda, where a special division of the High Court was created in May to try Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and his militia over crimes in the north.