Kenya

More mayhem than mediation

Jan 30th 2008 | NAIVASHA
From Economist.com

Kenya's politicians begin talks, as post-election violence threatens to spread out of control

AFP

THE small propeller-driven plane piloted by Peter Szapary, a Kenyan flower farmer, banked（bank有個熟詞僻意，就是飛機傾斜轉彎） and flew low over the Rift Valley town of Naivasha. Some traffic was visible on rotten road that connects much of the interior（內陸） of eastern Africa with the sea. In the town itself things were largely at a standstill（停止，停頓）. Several streets were controlled by crowds of Kikuyu youths armed menacingly（邪惡地，脅迫地） with clubs（此詞含義頗多，n.
俱乐部, 夜总会, 社, 棍棒, (高尔夫球等的)球棒, (扑克牌)梅花
vt.
棍打, 协作, 联合, 把...当棍棒用,這裡很明顯，是名詞棍棒的意思） machetes（彎刀）, bows and arrows. Here and there, houses were burning. A few hundred youths were strung along the road（請記住這個表達，增加你文章的地道感覺）outside the police station, where several thousand of Naivasha’s Luos, whose homeland is a hundred miles farther west, had taken shelter.

The Rift Valley has become the centre for much of the ethnic violence that has worsened sharply in the past fortnight. In Nakuru, north-west of Naivasha, at least ten people were killed in a rampage of violence（狂亂的暴力，狂野的暴力）. Now it is often a case of simple revenge, Kikuyus striking back against their Luo and Kalenjin tormentors（在句中是同位語關係，LUO ,KALENJIN就是使人煩惱的人） who did most of the killing immediately after the disputed election of December 27th. Over 850 people have since died. The cycle of bloodshed（流血事件） may now be beyond politicians’ control.

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But at least this week they started talking to each other. A former UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, who is the leading mediator, has persuaded President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, to enter into negotiations with Raila Odinga, a Luo, who leads the opposition Orange Democratic Movement. Both leaders have appointed representatives to resolve what Mr Annan calls “immediate political issues” and break the impasse(passe from latin,means road,im-,構反，無路，就是絕境，死路，引申為僵局）, but he gave warning that it may take much longer, even a year, to forge a solid and comprehensive agreement.

But that is progress of sorts（各種各樣的）. Mr Kibaki’s newly appointed ministers at first insisted there was nothing to negotiate. Yet the main difference remains. The opposition insists that Mr Kibaki stole the election and is an “illegal” president, whereas the government argues that Mr Kibaki won fairly. Britain’s minister for Africa, Lord Malloch-Brown, who met both sides earlier this week, said he felt the rivals were talking about separate crises（crisis的複數） and solutions.

Mr Annan has apparently ruled out（劃去，排除，取消） a recount（列舉，敘述） of the vote on the ground that Kenyans have lost confidence in their electoral commission. He also reckons（上篇文章出現過，還記得嗎？） that a new election is unthinkable（不可思議的） for a year or so. The Oranges are being urged to suppress（抑制，鎮壓，常見詞根構詞） their anger and soften their demands; even if they did, it remains unclear whether Mr Kibaki and his backers would sit alongside Mr Odinga in an interim（過渡的，中間期） government.

Should Mr Kibaki drag out the talks in the hope of bolstering（支持）his position, the European Union may seek to impose “targeted” sanctions on Kenya, to punish Mr Kibaki’s more obdurate（adj.
冷酷无情的, 顽固的, 执拗的） ministers and backers, while sparing（spare,v节约, 节省, 不伤害, 宽恕, 分让, 提供给某人,這里究竟取哪個意思，有待商討） poorer Kenyans from the effects（財產，家庭財務，動產） of general trade and aid sanctions. The targeted version would include travel bans on specified individuals and their families, increased international oversight of prospective privatisations, and publicity to new investigations into grand corruption by named ministers. More extreme measures would be to downgrade diplomatic relations and withdraw the considerable（相當多的）military support that Kenya gets from Britain and America, although Mr Kibaki has been warmly embraced in the past as an ally in the global “war on terror”.

In any event, the shooting dead of a popular Orange MP, Mugabe Were, a Luhya also from the west, set off （出发, 动身, 使爆炸, 引起, 使爆发, 抵销, 分开, 衬托）another spasm（痙攣） of lethal（致命的） riots（暴亂，騷亂） in Nairobi’s slums and around the country. In the Luos’ provincial capital, Kisumu, more Kikuyus were butchered and necklaced （verb [VN] to kill sb by putting a burning car tyre around their neck
）with burning tyres by rampaging Luo youths.

Kenya is rife with rumour（謠言遍布）. Some say that there are furious disagreements within Mr Kibaki’s circle in State House. Others say that he is poised（泰然自若的, 平衡的） to impose a state of emergency. Among Kikuyus, there is fearful talk of Luo militias（民兵） loyal to Mr Odinga being trained outside the country, perhaps in southern Sudan.

All sides realise that an escalation （escalator，早期一種電梯的商標，逆構出escalate，表示逐步升級）in violence from machetes to machineguns would be ruinous. So far, the use of traditional weapons has caused the flight of several hundred thousand Kenyans who belonged to ethnic minorities in their places of abode（住所，注意和ADOBE區別開來，那個是磚塊）—for instance, Luos in Central Province and Kikuyus in the west. But wholesale slaughter（大批屠殺，注意，已經出現好幾個屠殺的詞了，你注意了嗎？加一個，massacre） has yet（這個yet我也不理解，我猜是已經的意思） to occur.

Diplomats have joined business and church leaders in giving Mr Annan their support. Although many believe that Mr Kibaki is to blame for rigging（rig是裝配的意思，這裡指操控,rigging本身就是指舞弊行為，例如牛津高階的解釋：the act of influencing sth in a dishonest way in order to get the result that you want: vote rigging）the presidential vote, they have agreed not to press for immediate sanctions so as to give Mr Annan’s negotiations a chance to succeed.

But if there is no break-through, Kenya could tear apart even more drastically（激烈地，徹底地，和哪個詞比較像？） along ethnic lines, with Mr Kibaki’s Kikuyu-dominated government controlling the wealthy centre of the country up to Nakuru, north-west of Nairobi, while Mr Odinga’s Orange opposition holds sway over（固定搭配，稱雄，統治，如 Guangzhou real estate holding sway over five years，廣州房地產稱霸5年）the west and much of the north.