Annan backs Kenya riot tribunals

Nairobi, 08 Oct-(ANA)-Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says the leaders of Kenya's post-election violence should face trial.

The key perpetrators are to be tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but Mr Annan said it was vital that others were tried in Kenya.

Mr Annan helped mediate a peace deal after the 2008 violence in which 1,300 were killed and 300,000 displaced.

He also warned that Kenya needs to speed up reforms if a repeat of the communal riots was to be avoided.

At the end of his three-day visit to Kenya, Mr Annan said the government had assured him it would collaborate with the ICC.

But he said he also supported the establishment of a local Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

"It is not either a local tribunal or the International Criminal Court. It is both. Both are needed," he said. (ANA)

FA/ANA/08 October 2009---