By Nancy, RightBias – USA

Free Cell Phones Are Now a Civil Right

Pennsylvanians on public assistance now have a new ‘civil right’ — free cell phones. Meanwhile, the rest of us get to pay higher cell bills as a result. New York Post

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By API in Cairo.

Egypt, Cairo, 03.08.2011, Hosni Mubarak was wheeled in to the court today morning for trial on corruption and murder charges, The former president has been humiliated and his former subjects, the people he ruled for many years are now rejoicing to see him brought to justice.

Many leaders in the continent who rule mercilessly are now watching what is happening in Egypt. They know if they continue their corrupt and murderous ways, they may end up being treated like Mubarak when they no longer have the power.

Leaders all over the world should respect the people they rule, allowing them their rights if they expect to be treated humanly when they fall from grace.

When Mubarak was president, he had many friends who are still leaders in their countries. All of them have now turned their back on him, leaving him struggle to save his face from total humiliation. These leaders are not even appealing to the new leadership in Egypt to allow justice to prevail in this case. This is a clear message to leaders worldwide that political friendship is useless. When worse comes to worse, every leader will have to stand alone and answer for crimes committed.

When in court today, he denied the charges. His two sons are also on trial in the same court.

The hearing continues.

End

Analysis: Donor aid boosts West Bank infrastructure despite impediments

Photo: Erica Silverman/IRIN

The West bank city of Ramallah is undergoing an upgrade to its infrastructure

RAMALLAH, 29 July 2011 (IRIN) – West Bank infrastructure projects have increased as a result of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) state-building efforts and increased donor funding, although significant barriers to implementation remain, report officials from Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad’s office, PA ministries and donors.

Infrastructure, intertwined with economic development, is seen as the backbone of a future state under the framework of the 2008 Palestinian Reform and Development Plan (PRDP), the government’s comprehensive effort to prepare for an independent Palestinian state by September 2011.

The PA has succeeded in connecting almost all residential areas to the electricity grid (99.8 percent of the population now connected), repair thousands of kilometres of roads, as well as improve the water and sanitation networks since 2008.

In Ramallah a year-long US$2.5 million “Rehabilitation of the City Centre” project, funded by the PA and the municipality and ending in August, will see upgrades to the city’s water and electricity network, roads and communications infrastructure. The project is in Area A, where the PA has full control.

However, PA ministries say permits for project related construction and rehabilitation, particularly in Area C, are not forthcoming and projects are frequently destroyed by Israeli authorities, hindering their ability to deliver essential public services.

Israel retains military authority and full control over the building and planning sphere in Area C; 70 percent of the area is classified as a firing zone, settlement areas, or nature reserves, and is inaccessible to Palestinians; 60 percent of the West Bank is in Area C.

“Restrictions in Area C affect the total population,” spokesperson from Fayyad’s office Ghassan Khatib told IRIN. “For example, a proposed Nablus sewage treatment plant between Nablus and Tulkarem is located in Area C, but serves the Nablus population in Area A.” Public infrastructure like sewage and solid waste management facilities cannot be located near population centres, making Area C the only option available, say Palestinian officials.

The project has yet to be approved by the Israeli authorities after nearly 10 years of delay, said Khatib.

The PA has managed to close unsafe landfill sites and to create two new landfills in the Tulkarem and Hebron governorates, with plans for a Southern West Bank Landfill serving the Bethlehem and Hebron governorates. “It took nearly eight years of negotiations with Israeli authorities to obtain the necessary permission to access areas for the landfills,” said Khatib. Several more are urgently needed.

Ramallah, a sprawling urban centre in the West Bank, needs a new landfill to serve its residents and 10 surrounding municipalities, said Ramallah Municipality spokesperson Maha Shihadeh. “The population is too close to the dumping site, and it must be moved to avoid potential health effects.”

Restricted access

Officials from the PA ministry of planning and administrative development (MoPAD) say infrastructure and services must be adapted to the geography imposed by occupation, despite the high cost.

Areas A and B are not contiguous, so many projects like roads and utility networks extend into Area C, less than 1 percent of which has been planned for Palestinian development by the Israeli Civil Administration, reports the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Photo: Erica Silverman/IRIN

New squares and monuments are appearing in Ramallah

In the first half of 2011, 342 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished in Area C by Israeli authorities, according to OCHA, while over 3,000 demolition orders are outstanding.

Israel says it has approved a greater number of PA infrastructure projects over the last year aiming to upgrade Palestinian water and sewage infrastructure, agriculture, and the electricity network.

Increased donor funding

An increase in donor funded development projects since 2008 prompted the PA planning ministry to develop an aid information management system, DARP, an inclusive database that currently contains about 1,500 ongoing or completed donor funded projects in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), including projects from Arab donors.

Over the past 20 years the PA received about US$20 billion in donor funds, $7.7 billion of which came in the last three years, according to a senior planning ministry official.

OPt, with a population of about 4.1 million (2.5 million in the West Bank and about 1.6 million in Gaza) had a gross domestic product (GDP) of $7 billion in 2010. Net official development assistance to oPt was $2.5 billion in 2010, which amounts to 36 percent of GDP, reports the planning ministry.

In 2010 about $1.148 billion of the assistance went to budget support; about $755 million to development projects from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD donors; and about $585 million was for humanitarian projects, including the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) general fund for the West Bank and Gaza and the UN-NGO Consolidated Appeals Process, according to the planning ministry.

A recent report by aid watchdog Development Initiatives said humanitarian aid to oPt in 2009 was $1.3 billion, making it the second largest recipient in the world.

Project implementation challenges

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) launched its $300 million Infrastructure Needs Program in 2008, including construction and rehabilitation of roads, water and wastewater systems, schools, and other required facilities as the PA prepares for its role in a future Palestinian state.

Major challenges USAID faces include “protracted GOI [Government of Israel] approvals to transport materials and equipment into the West Bank,” and “Delays in PWA [Palestinian Water Authority] land acquisition for funded projects.”

USAID declined to comment on these development challenges.

The European Union (EU), the main donor and partner to the PA, supports a number of major public infrastructure programmes in the areas of transportation, electricity, water access, wastewater treatment and solid waste management.

After addressing urgent needs linked to rehabilitation of the Palestinian basic infrastructure from 2005 to 2010 (total $166.6 million), the EU is focusing on sector-concentrated interventions, said John Gatt-Rutter, deputy head of the EU Delegation in Jerusalem.

In 2011, the EU expects to invest $31.5 million in the water and sanitation sector. “We are implementing our projects in a total partnership with the PA,” said Gatt-Rutter, and “we do use our contacts with the Israeli government to try to facilitate the implementation of some projects.”

About 43 percent of donor assistance to the Palestinians is from the EU and EU member countries; about 25 percent from the USA and its agencies; about 25 percent from Arab countries and their agencies; and about 7 percent from other donors, like Australia, Japan, Canada and Norway, says the planning ministry official.

Quartet coordination efforts

Office of the Quartet Representative (OQR) Tony Blair continuously negotiates with Israeli officials to try and coordinate donor projects.

“Part of the OQR’s work is helping to facilitate infrastructure projects, most of which are donor funded, that are fulfilling the requirements of PM Fayyad’s state building Plan [PRDP],” a spokesperson from the OQR Jerusalem office told IRIN.

“It’s not just about political negotiations; there must be progress on the ground as well for Palestinians to realize improvement in their day-to-day lives,” he said.

es/cb source www.irinnews.org

GULU, 29 July 2011 (IRIN) – The trial of Thomas Kwoyelo, a former rebel
in Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the first such case before the
Ugandan High Court’s International Crime Division (ICD), is eliciting
mixed reactions. Analysts say that while it may satisfy northerners’
desire for justice, there are concerns over its impact on future LRA
defections.

Kwoyelo was charged with war crimes, including murder and kidnapping in
various northern Uganda locations, on 11 July in Gulu. He denied the
charges.

“The Kwoyelo trial sends mixed messages to current LRA fighters and
commanders,” Ashley Benner, a policy analyst with the Enough Project,
told IRIN in an email.

“On the one hand, the Amnesty Act guarantees amnesty for the LRA, and
leafleting and radio programmes provide assurances that they can defect
without fear of prosecution. On the other hand, the Amnesty Commission
has been inconsistent in granting amnesties, and the Ugandan High Court
has begun prosecuting a mid-level LRA commander who has been refused
amnesty.”

Kwoyelo’s amnesty application was referred to Uganda’s Constitutional
Court for interpretation on 25 July.

The Amnesty Act
<http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/northern-uganda/documents/2000_Jan_T
he_Amnesty_Act.doc>  provides that people who meet the amnesty
requirements, including renouncing and abandoning involvement in the war
or armed rebellion, cannot be prosecuted or punished for crimes covered
by the act in Uganda.

Benner added: “In order to make real progress toward diminishing the
size and strength of the LRA, Kampala should fully resume granting
amnesties, publicly clarify the application of the Amnesty Act and
reinstate formal channels for joining the Ugandan army.”

Echoing this, Ned Dalby, analyst at International Crisis Group (ICG),
said: “Unfortunately, the trial does little to reassure LRA fighters
still in the bush in the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] and the CAR
[Central African Republic] that if they surrender they will be offered
amnesty and be able to return home.

“LRA combatants need to see escape and return as a viable option to
fight and flee.”

According to a new Oxfam survey, LRA attacks continue in the DRC,
resulting in 26 deaths and 23 kidnappings in June alone.

The head of Oxfam in DRC, Pauline Ballaman, said: “Small mobile groups
of hungry LRA fighters continue to viciously target the most isolated
and forgotten people in northeastern DRC. Despite past military
operations and increased international attention, the LRA is still able
to wreak havoc in neglected communities and is responsible for
widespread killings, abductions and displacement.”

There have also been concerns about whether the ICD court, set up in
2007 after the incorporation of the International Criminal Court’s Rome
Statute, lacks the required international procedures to provide Kwoyelo
a fair trial and sufficiently protect witnesses.

However, ICD presiding Judge Dan Akiiki-Kiiza said: “We are going to
ensure justice is delivered; the court is competent to handle cases of
such magnitude.”

According to Stephen Oola, head of research and advocacy at the Refugee
Law Project, Kwoyelo’s trial is important as it brings about a
“semblance of justice”.

“The challenge is [what] about [the] other senior LRA commanders who
have been let off the hook? What we need is to achieve our goal of
accountability and reconciliation and this should mean justice should
not be selective,” said Oola.

The Ugandan government appeared to be using the Kwoyelo trial to show it
is taking on board the need for justice and accountability in the
aftermath of the northern Uganda conflict, said ICG’s Dalby.

“It [the case] is high profile and very visible both at home and abroad.
“It may well satisfy some northerners’ desire for justice at the
national level but is unlikely to speed up the slow process of
reconciliation between aggressors and victims within and between
communities. This is the real challenge facing the government and people
of Uganda,” he said.

Kwoyelo is accused of attacking an internally displaced persons camp in
Pagak where several civilians were killed between 1992 and 2005, laying
ambushes along the Gulu-Juba road, destroying civilian property and
abducting children in the Awer, Bira, Oputure and Pogo villages.

In August 2010, he was charged with wilful killings, hostage taking and
extensive destruction of property in Amuru and Gulu districts.

However, a former LRA major, John Ogil, said Kwoyelo’s LRA duties mainly
involved manning the sick bay in Kilak with limited field operations.

Under orders

Former LRA high-ranking commanders, such as Brig Kenneth Banya and Otto,
have all received amnesty under the act over the last several years,
according to Human Rights Watch
<http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/07/07/uganda-qa-trial-thomas-kwoyelo> .

Kwoyelo’s mother, Roselina Oyella, told IRIN her son was acting on the
orders of his superiors. “My son was abducted when he was barely 15
years [old]; he committed the crimes on [the] orders of commanders like
Vincent Otti, [Kenneth] Banya and others.”

At least 60 witnesses, most of them war-crime survivors in the north,
are expected to give evidence at the trial, which according to the
defence lawyer, Caleb Alaka, will help in healing the affected
communities, albeit with “an impact on amnesty”.

ca-aw/mw source  www.irinnews.org