WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange has won the Amnesty 2009 New Media Award for work exposing hundreds of recent extrajudicial assassinations in Kenya. The award was presented last night at a ceremony in London.
Four people associated with investigating the killings have themselves been murdered, including noted human rights lawyers Oscar Kingara and John Paul Oulo, who were assassinated driving to an afternoon meeting at the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights in March this year.
WikiLeaks first ran its first story on the killings for a week on its fronpage, beginning November 1, 2008. Eventually the story was picked up by print media, starting with Jon Swain from the Sunday Times. Then, earlier this year the United Nations sent a team to Nairobi, lead by Prof. Alston, to investigate.
According to AFP, earlier today a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council was told by the U.N Special Rapporteur on extrajudical killings, Prof. Philip Alston, that Kenya's police were a "major stumbling block" for probes into the killings.
Prof. Alston also told that 47 member Human Rights Council on Wednesday that "Attacks on those who document abuses do not absolve a government of its obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for extrajudicial executions,".
In accepting the award, Mr. Assange stated "It is a reflection of the courage and strength of Kenyan civil society that this injustice was documented. Through the tremendous work of organizations such as the Oscar foundation, the KNHCR, Mars Group Kenya and others we had the primary support we needed to expose these murders to the world. I know that they will not rest, and we will not rest, until justice is done."
Source documents
* Murder in Nairobi: Wikileaks related human rights lawyers assassinated
* Kenya: The Cry of Blood - Report on Extra-Judicial Killings and
Disappearances, Sep 2008
* Kenyan assassinations: slain human rights lawyer Oscar Kamau Kingara
letter to the International Criminal Court, 1 Jan 2009
* Oscar Foundation - assassinated Kamau Kingara final report - The Veil
of Impunity, 9 Oct 2008
* Oscar Foundation letter to Minister for Internal Security over
extra-judicial killings in Kenya, 14 Oct 2008
* US Ambassador to Internal Security head over Kenyan assassination
Selected reportage
* Cooperate with FBI, Raila tells Kenya police
* Demonstrators accuse police over disappearance of kin
* International Criminal Court will handle politicians but who will tame
police
* Raila now attacks security agencies
* Two Kenyan rights activists shot dead
* UN group to probe poll chaos deaths
* UN probe indicts Kenya on police killings
* UN urges probe into Kenya murders
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