ICC puts would-be criminals on notice they cannot expect impunity: Ban

17/07/08

UN – RADIO

The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is unquestionably one of the major achievements of international law during the past century.

That according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in remarks commemorating the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute establishing the Court.He says far too often in the past, the gravest crimes have gone unpunished, adding that the most egregious criminals have remained at large and the most wronged victims denied justice:

“But the first decade of the International Criminal Court signals a break from this unfortunate past. It puts would-be criminals and perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity on notice that they cannot expect impunity; that they will be indicted, that they will be arrested, and that they will be held responsible.”

Secretary-General Ban says the UN’s work to promote peace, development and human rights is heavily dependent on the ICC’s efforts to advance justice and establish the rule of law.

Eritrea : Press Statement: Ethiopia: Duplicity at the AU and G8 Summits

By Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Jul 17, 2008,

Shabait

Reporting on bilateral meetings that took place between the UN Secretary General and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister on the margins of the G8 Summit in Hokkaido Toyako, Japan, News network asserts: “Melles blasted the UN for not acting on Eritrea for its destructive measures on the Ethiopia-Eritrea border.”

It is not Eritrea but Ethiopia that has flagrantly violated the UN Charter, including Article 2.3 and Article 33 on “the peaceful settlement of disputes” as well as Article 2.4 on the “use or threat of use of force against the territorial integrity of any State”. Ethiopia has also breached the Algiers Peace Agreement, which was guaranteed by the UN Security Council, through its illegal occupation of Badme and other sovereign Eritrean territories along after the delimitation and demarcation determinations of the boundary by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission.

Perhaps Ethiopia’s Prime Minister was emboldened by Ban Ki-moon’s “gratitude for Ethiopia’s contribution to the joint UN-Africa peace-keeping mission in Darfur” and tried to push his luck. But clearly, this is a separate matter. Ethiopia’s contributions to peacekeeping missions in the continent – whether this is motivated by altruism or monetary reward is another matter- does not provide Addis Abeba with a carte blanche to invade its neighbours and to violate international law.

The blame does not, of course rest on Ethiopia’s Prime Minister alone. Also to blame were those who have encouraged him throughout the years. His posturing in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, at the AU Summit that took place at the beginning of this month was therefore entirely predictable.

Addressing the African Heads of State and government, Melles:

1. Claimed that Ethiopia has “unconditionally accepted the delimitation decisions of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission”.

1. Attempted to justify Ethiopia’s admitted occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories as “a matter of eventual territorial swap”; and,

1. Claimed that he had been advised by his lawyers to dismiss the demarcation by coordinates authoritatively determined by the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission as “legal nonsense”.

All theses assertions are at variance with the truth as the following facts and events illustrate;

1. In a letter sent to the UN Secretary General on 19 September 2003, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister rejected the EEBC’s delimitation decision as “illegal, unjust and irresponsible” and requested the United Nations to create an “alternative mechanism”. Over the five years that followed, Ethiopia continued to reject the EEBC’s delimitation decision and refused to allow the physical demarcation of the border. Ethiopia raised unfounded and deceptive scare tactics, such as “villages and families will be divided”, “burial grounds will be separated”, etc. etc. in its attempts to have the decision annulled.

In the face of these obstructions, the EEBC lamented in its sixteenth report to the UN Secretary Council in February 2005:

“…Ethiopia is not prepared to allow demarcation to continue in the manner laid down in the demarcation directions and in accordance with the time line set by the Commission. It now insists on prior “dialogue” but has rejected the opportunity for such “dialogue” within the framework of the demarcation process provided by the Commission’s proposal to meet with the parties on 22 February. This is the latest in a series of obstructive actions taken since the summer of 2002 and belies the frequently professed acceptance by Ethiopia of the delimitation decision…”

At the meeting held in The Hague on September 2007, Ethiopia’s lawyers rejected the EEBC’s delimitation decision and insisted on prior dialogue, thus confirming the conclusions that the EEBC had reached earlier. As the President of the EEBC emphasized in a letter responding to Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs:

“…Your letter seeks to blame the Commission for Ethiopia’s failure to meet its obligations under the Algiers Agreement. Such blame is entirely misplaced. The truth of the matter appears to be that Ethiopia is dissatisfied with the Commission’s Delimitation Decision and has been seeking ever since April 2002, to find ways of changing it. This is not an approach which the Commission was empowered to adopt and is not one to which the Commission can lend itself…”

2. The attempt to justify Ethiopia’s occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories as a simple “matter of eventual territorial swap” is a lie. The Prime Minister’s claim that the “swapping of territories could only take place after the second stage or the completion of physical demarcation” has no legal basis and violates common sense. In the first place, the final and binding EEBC Award of 13 April 2002 defined each country’s lines of sovereignty and both parties are obliged to conduct their affairs consistently with this decision. The EEBC, in its sixteenth Report on the work of the Commission to the Security Council on 24 February 2005, emphasized,

“…the line of the boundary was legally and finally determined by its delimitation decision of 13 April 2002…. Conduct inconsistent with this boundary line is unlawful…”

Ethiopia, moreover, cannot obstruct physical demarcation for an indefinite period of time in breach of the Algiers Agreement while simultaneously arguing that it cannot relinquish to Eritrea sovereign territory under its occupation.

3. Finally in as far as the legality of the EEBC’s demarcation by coordinates is concerned, one party to a case is not entitled to reject a ruling simply because its lawyers disagree with it. The Algiers Agreement explicitly states that the Commission’s demarcation decisions are “final and binding”, just as its delimitation decisions are. In its November 2006 Statement the EEBC clearly addressed the legality of demarcation by coordinates, stating:

“… In adopting this approach, the Commission has been guided by significant authority in State practice following the use of the word ‘demarcation’ by the United Nations Secretary General and United Nations Security Council when the Iraq-Kuwait border was ‘demarcated’ in 1993…The Security Council’s expressed support for the Secretary General’s report no doubt was expressed as to the legal acceptability of a “demarcation” by means of a list of coordinates…Moreover the feasibility and acceptability of the use of coordinates alone as a means of identifying international boundaries is clearly affirmed by the manner in which the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea deals with the limits of maritime claims by States…”

Demarcation by coordinates is not without precedent, and the Commission’s decision to proceed in this manner is legal and binding on both parties. The Commission’s decision was unanimous; Ethiopia’s two appointed Commissioner’s agreed that demarcation by coordinates is a perfectly legal way to proceed.

The US-led international community’s refusal to shoulder its moral and legal obligations under the Algiers Agreement and the UN Charter, and its continued appeasement of Ethiopia, have emboldened the regime to flout international law, the EEBC’s delimitation and demarcation decisions, and the AU and UN Charters, with its continuing militarily occupation of Badme and other sovereign Eritrean territories.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

17 July 2008

Asmara, Eritrea

Eritrea : Self-reliance is preparing yourself for partnership…

Image google search ( adalvoice )

FEATURE-In Eritrea, self help is a national

legacy

By Jack Kimball

ASMARA, July 17- 2008

(Reuters)

You can hear the ping of metal striking metal and the gentle buzz of wood being cut before you even enter Medebr market in the Eritrean capital.

Inside, a cacophony of hammering and sawing assails the ears while bright blue flashes from welding guns strike the eyes. Down a dirt street inside this old open market, artisan Berhane Seid cuts small slits in a shell casing.

The combs that Berhane carves from these remnants of Eritrea’s wars are sold to hairdressers, who use them to straighten hair.

“Self-reliance is very important … You don’t have to expect anything from anybody,” says the veteran of Eritrea’s 1998-2000 border conflict with neighbour Ethiopia.

Berhane, like many in the Red Sea state, feels a steely pride in the government’s self-reliance policy, a legacy of Eritrea’s 30-year independence war with Ethiopia, Washington’s top regional ally.

During the war — popularly known as the “Struggle” — guerrillas had little outside help. Goods like medicines and radios were manufactured in camouflaged tents and bunkers.

After independence in 1991, that enforced policy became an enduring legacy. But it has put Eritrea, home to around 4.7 million people, at loggerheads with many Western donors and could hamper foreign investment, analysts say.

In late 2005, drought-prone Eritrea cut food aid by more than 94 percent, according to aid agencies. Months later, all food aid was stopped except to people displaced by the border war with Ethiopia, according to the World Bank.

In the past three years, the Asmara government has repealed the permits of more than a dozen international aid agencies. It says Western powers have used aid in the past to meddle in countries’ internal affairs.

It also says food aid creates a culture of dependency.

“Genuine independent help is not neo-colonialism,” said one Western diplomat in Asmara.

EQUAL PARTNERSHIP

Eritrea’s tradition of self-reliance comes vividly to life in Medebr market.

Used oil drums are recycled to make traditional ovens for cooking injera — a spongy bread eaten in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Artisans construct intricate Orthodox Christian crosses. Others pound away at sizzling scrap metal, morphing it into hoes for the planting season.

President Isaias Afwerki told Reuters in an interview in mid-May that his nation was not trying to cut itself off from the rest of the world.

“We would like integration more than anybody else … Self-reliance is interpreted as an isolationist trend, which it is not at all … Self-reliance is preparing yourself for partnership, equal partnership,” he said.

Eritrea’s government has long been suspicious of the international community and its aid. Fractious ties have worsened in the last few years since Western nations accused it of backing Somali insurgents and expelling U.N. peacekeepers on its border with Ethiopia.

Eritrea, admired by the West in the years after independence as a shining example of post-liberation war African countries, has also fallen out with Western donors over its human rights record.

Asmara denies accusations of abuses and says Western nations have long favoured Ethiopia — both during Eritrea’s liberation war and the subsequent border conflict with Addis Ababa.

One of Africa’s youngest and smallest nations, Eritrea also has one of the continent’s largest armies. At least 320,000 are in service, according to World Bank estimates.

Eritrea’s ruling party says it uses Eritreans doing mandatory national service for development and commercial projects. Many more also man the highly militarised border with Ethiopia.

The World Bank says there are few private companies in Eritrea and that its government uses price controls and regulations to manage macroeconomic imbalances.

But Eritrea is not alone.

Its frosty relations with the West have forced it to look elsewhere for allies and it has turned to Gulf States, China and some regional players. Many are old friends from the independence war.

FUTURE

The Red Sea state is believed to be rich in gold and base metals, but analysts say it is likely to be several years before mining companies are ready to start production.

In his May interview with Reuters, Isaias said the first gold mine would begin producing by the end of 2009, starting a metals industry with “huge” reserves and potential to drive development.

He also said his government would take time with its foreign partners to develop mining both to maximise social benefits for Eritreans and avoid the so-called “resource curse” that has bedevilled other African nations.

Eritrea has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world at $200, but has better social indicators, according to the World Bank. It is also heavily dependent on remittances sent back by tens of thousands of Eritreans who live abroad.

The International Monetary Fund says growth is projected at 1.2 percent this year after 1.3 percent in 2007

With a largely agricultural economy that is being hampered by the ongoing deadlock with Ethiopia, some analysts say the country’s self-reliance policy could cost it dear.

“The government simply cannot afford to scare away donors, NGOs, and U.N. agencies (not to mention foreign investors) by adhering to a nationalist narrative based on ’stubbornness’,” said Christian Bundegaard, a research fellow at the Programme for Strategic and International Security Studies, in a 2004 article on Eritrea. (Editing by Clar Ni Chonghaile) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)

Boy, 8, dies after accidentally hanging himself on rope swing in back garden

Tragedy: Harry Rowse died at Sheffield Children’s Hospital five days after he was found hanging in his back garden

17/07/08

This is London, UK

A schoolboy game went tragically wrong when eight-year-old Harry Rowse accidentally hanged himself as he played on a rope swing in his back garden.

Harry was enjoying five minutes of fun as he climbed the tree and began swinging before he was due to set off for school.

Moments later he was gasping for life after he slipped and the rope became tangled around his neck.

Harry’s mother, graphic designer Diane Jobling, 34, had left for work a few minutes earlier.

His stepfather John, a serving policeman, realised something was wrong and found Harry hanged by the rope.

He freed the youngster and desperately fought to help him as paramedics raced to the scene in the garden of the family’s semi-detached house in Carcroft, Doncaster.

Harry, a pupil at nearby Carcroft Primary School, was rushed to a specialist unit at Sheffield Children’s Hospital and was placed on a life support machine following the incident last Thursday.

Doctors fought to save the boy but the machine was turned off when he was declared brain dead six days later.

Harry’s heartbroken granddad, 77-year-old Lawrence Jobling, said : ‘The whole family is devastated.

‘He was a happy lad and full of life and this was a tragic accident.

‘It was a nice morning and he was having a bit of fun before he set off for school. There’s a tree at the bottom of the garden where him and his pals had a rope swing.

‘He was just swinging on rope like any little lad would do for a bit of fun and he must have slipped and it went around his neck.

‘He must have been there a few seconds before his stepdad went to help him. He did everything he could for Harry as the paramedics were called. They took him to hospital.

‘He was put on a life support machine but the damage was so bad that the doctors couldn’t do anything for him and they had to take the decision to turn it off.’

Harry was a pupil at Carcroft Primary School for a few months where staff described him as a ‘happy’ youngster.

School head Simon Hickton said: ‘Harry had been at our school only a few months but had settled well. He was full of energy , smiles and had new friends.

‘Just the other weekend his grandma had told a member of staff that he was as happy as she had known him.

‘He had already bought his class teacher an end of year card and present to thank her for teaching him.

‘Our utmost sympathy is with his family as they come to terms with his tragic accident.’

A post mortem is due to be carried out and an inquest will be opened in Doncaster next week.

A police spokesman confirmed that Harry died on Tuesday morning at Sheffield Children’s Hospital and the death was not being treated as suspicious.

UK : If there’s a knife in your child’s hand, it’s in your hands to stop it.

“The most common knife involved in these deaths is a knife

from the kitchen and we must have conversations about

knife crime with teenagers.”

Image googl search ( adalvoice )

Matthew Weaver, Haroon Siddique and agencies

Thursday July 17, 2008

guardian.co.uk

Despite national alarm over knife crime, the overall number of crimes, including knife crime, is falling, official figures showed today.

The British Crime Survey, which is based on interviews with the public, revealed that nearly 130,000 violent offences involved a knife last year, down 43,000 on the previous year.

The figures also showed a record 10% drop in overall crime from the previous year.

Separate police-recorded crime in England, set out in the government’s annual crime report, showed a fall of 9% in the 12 months to March 2008.

Police recorded 22,151 offences involving knives last year in England and Wales, including grievous bodily harm, attempted murder, woundings and robbery.

These figures, which are regarded as more reliable than the crime survey, showed that more than 60% of these crimes were confined to predominantly urban areas: Meryside, Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and London were 7,428 knife crimes offences were recorded.

The new recorded knife crime figures – which have been collected only since April last year – showed offences involving knives included 231 attempted murders, 11,528 personal robberies, 2,359 business robberies and more than 8,000 woundings.

The recorded crime figures showed the number of firearms offences increased 2% in the year to 9,803.

Recorded drug offences rose 18%, mainly due to an increase in the number of people dealt with for cannabis possession.

Home Office chief scientific adviser, Professor Paul Wiles, said the overall figures represented the longest recorded period of falling crime in living memory.

He said the level of falling violent crime in particular was at odds with the public’s perception of their chances of being attacked.

Wiles said: “It is possible to have an overall decline in violence nationally while sometimes, and at the same time, having outbreaks of violent crimes in particular places, in particular concentrations and having increases in those places.”

“For the first time this year we have data about the use of knives and sharp instruments for more serious violence.

The figures come at a time of public concern about knife crime in the wake of a spate of murders, many involving teenagers.