World of Opinion
On Sudan’s lost chance at African Union presidency: For the second time now, Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir has missed the chance to take over the mantle as chairman of the African Union.
Instead, Ghanaian President, John Kufuor, is the new AU boss. Bashir has been denied the top post for the second time because of the protracted conflict in the Darfur region.
This, in our view, is the needed pressure by the continental body to get the Sudanese government more committed to ending one of Africa’s embarrassing conflicts.
Far too many people have been killed.
Bashir’s government has been accused of backing killer militias called the Janjaweed. Though his administration has persistently denied the allegations, independent groups including aid agencies have floated evidence suggesting that the Janjaweed are state-backed.
As it has been argued before, Africa needs to lead the way toward resolving some of the continent’s wars. It does not make sense to glorify people working against African unity or the principles of the AU.
It is good to see that there was pressure from African countries meeting in the Ethiopian capital.
This is the kind of pressure needed in other conflict areas elsewhere in Africa. Dictators and other wayward leaders flouting the general principles of oneness and lack respect for human rights should know that they will never be left to have their way.
They should be isolated as a measure to get them to realise that what they are doing is wrong. …
On the Eilat suicide bombing and border fences:
The suicide bombing in Eilat on Monday was a painful reminder of a reality that has been pushed to the periphery of public debate.
The Shin Bet and the IDF have had great success in preventing attacks, to the point that this success is almost taken for granted, but there is no happy end to every case in this constant struggle.
The Israel-Egypt border is porous, for the use of both terrorists and criminals, and no Israeli community is immune to attack – either by Katyusha rockets or by suicide bombers.
Nonetheless, this does not mean that the hastily reached conclusion, that it is necessary to invest billions of shekels in a border fence, with sophisticated electronic equipment, from Eilat to Kerem Shalom, a total of 240 kilometers across desert and mountainous terrain, should be adopted.
Overall, the Israeli security services have managed to limit the number of both attacks and casualties.
They employ the proper tactics, and the proof of this is the decreasing frequency of the attacks.
This does not mean that the Palestinians and Egypt – either directly or indirectly – have no responsibility for the bombing in Eilat.
The divided Palestinian government is not trying to prevent attacks. Hamas, the Resistance Committees, and Islamic Jihad cooperated in the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit, and they continue to plan attacks and carry them out.
Some sources allege that Fatah, which prides itself on its moderation, and aspires to return to power, was also involved in the attack in Eilat.
Egypt does not insist on exercising its sovereignty over its territory or along its borders, neither that with the Gaza Strip nor that with Israel.
A diplomatic effort to demand from these parties to assume their responsibility, in addition to maintaining the intelligence and military efforts to prevent attacks, will be more useful than the illusion of a costly fence.
On Israel’s use of cluster bombs:
It seems an Amnesty International report criticising Israel for using cluster bombs in Lebanons civilian areas in the final days of last summer’s conflict with Hezbollah was right. After looking into the matter, the US state department has forwarded a preliminary report to the Congress.
And the word coming from Washington indicates that Israel is “likely” to have violated terms of its arms deals with the former, which place restrictions on the use of such bombs.
Organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross have rightly called for a complete ban on cluster bombs in populated areas. The main reason is that upon use they scatter into hundreds of small bomblets over a wide range, causing indiscriminate deaths.
As the US Congress mulls an appropriate course of action, it will no doubt bear in mind that at $2 billion per annum, America is by far Israel’s biggest military donor. As such, much of the responsibility of Israel’s excesses comes to eventually rest on Uncle Sam’s shoulders. That case is made stronger since Washington has been Israel’s chief veto-cover in the UN and diplomatic shelter in the international community, defending its actions regardless of ground realities and humanitarian/political fallout. But with things falling apart across the Middle East and American authority being called into question, surely it is time to re-evaluate the cost-benefit equation with such an upstart nation-state.
On rape allegations in the U.K.:
There is a far greater scandal in our criminal justice system than the small number of men who are victims of malicious accusations: the vast number of men who are committing rape and getting away with it. Less than six per cent of rape allegations in the UK result in conviction, one of the lowest rates in Europe. Few would suggest that 94 per cent of allegations of rape are false. This failure by our courts to hold so many to account must therefore be acknowledged as an outrage. It is certainly difficult to prove the charge of rape. But our courts should be doing far better than they are.
According to a joint report by the Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, police forces are dismissing rape allegations in nearly one third of cases when they should be investigated further.
The report shines a bright light on where the system is failing rape victims. For instance, it argues there is little consistency in the way forensic doctors are employed to examine victims. Call-out lists and rotas for police officers who have been specially trained to deal with such crimes are poorly managed. Front-line police officers have very little training to deal with the crime before specialists arrive. Proper police work at an early stage is essential to the prosecution case. All of these failures decrease the likelihood of conviction. The police and the prosecuting authorities must be made to understand by the Government that their underperformance will not be tolerated.
More women than ever are reporting rapes to the police. But anonymous surveys still suggest that only a small proportion of women who have been abused in this way are coming forward. Our criminal justice system is still not securing justice for the victims of rape. Ministers should devote their energies to putting this right before they turn their attention to other problems.