By KUNA
Paris : The French government called on the United Nations Security Council to take up the issue of the Kenyan crisis and the worsening ethnic and refugee problem in that country, an official statement said late Thursday.
France officially called upon the UN body to table the crisis on its agenda, all the while continuing to issue support for the ongoing efforts by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan and the African Union.
The French Foreign Ministry said that it feared that the ongoing violence in Kenya, where 290,000 people have been displaced because of brutal ethnic clashes, would worsen.
“Barbarous acts have been committed, civilian populations have been killed in atrocious conditions,” the French statement said, adding that “women and children have been raped (and) two opposition deputies have also been killed.” At least 1,000 people are believed to have died in the clashes that are beginning to resemble civil war on an ethnic basis.
“We fear that these unhinged acts will drag Kenya into a murderous ethnic conflict,” the French statement said.
France pointed out that the electoral result of several weeks ago was not clean, and it urges a rapid, political solution is now found.
In the meantime, government and opposition must accept their responsibilities and help bring an end to the violence, France said.