Opposition figures and human rights organizations criticize the government for trying to silence its opponents, which the government denies. The controversial bill that Uganda’s parliament approved allows military tribunals for civilians has drawn condemnation from the country’s parliament.
The country’s top court rejected the practice in January, but it has since been practiced there for a while. The Supreme Court had determined that military tribunals lacked the legal authority to judec civilians and lacked fair trial standards.
The legislation, which allows civilians to be tried in military courts, was passed on Tuesday by lawmakers in spite of that ruling.
You showed today that you are fearless Americans! In a post on X, President Yoweri Museveni, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the head of the military and his son, said, “Uganda will remember your courage and commitment.”
After the party claimed the opposition activist had been abducted, Kainerugaba earlier this month claimed to be holding a missing opposition activist in his basement and threatened to use violence against him.
In response to concerns about alleged threats to state stability and armed opposition, Museveni’s government has frequently defended military trials as necessary for national security.
According to a spokesman for the military, the legislation will “defend decisively against armed violent criminals, deter the formation of militant political groups that seek to subvert democratic processes, and ensure national security is firmly founded,” according to Chris Magezi, a spokesman for the military.
However, critics claim that this action is a result of broader repression. During the debate on the bill, opposition MP Jonathan Odur told parliament, “There is no legal basis for the trial of civilians in the military court.” He called the legislation “shallow, unreasonable, and unconstitutional.”
Uganda has used military courts for years to prosecute opposition figures and critics of the government.
Bobi Wine, a popular politician who now leads the opposition, was accused of illegally possessing firearms in a military court in 2018. Later, the charges were dropped.
Former opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who has contested Museveni in numerous elections, was detained in Kenya last year and later returned to Uganda to face a military tribunal.
His trial was moved to a civilian court after the Supreme Court’s ruling in January. The People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), his party, has refuted the accusations as politically motivated.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has previously criticized Uganda’s military courts for breaking international standards for judicial independence and fairness.
The Ugandan government has repeatedly used military courts to punish opponents and critics, according to Oryem Nyeko, senior Africa researcher at HRW, earlier this year.
After abruptly halting funding of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the US government’s leadership plans to intervene.
After a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s foreign policy head, announced to the media that $5. 5 million ($6.2 million) will be provided to “support the vital work of Radio Free Europe.”
She continued, “It’s short-term emergency funding that’s intended to provide a safety net for independent journalism.”
In order to reduce government spending, Trump suspended funding for RFE/RL in March along with other US broadcasters, including Voice of America.
The administration’s criticisms included claims that the cuts are politically motivated and were a result of a desire to control and restrict the news media’s biases.
Trump accused two US public broadcasters, PBS and NPR of biased reporting and spreading “left-wing” propaganda by signing an executive order earlier this month.
A US federal judge granted a request to the Trump administration last month to restore $ 12 million that was authorized by Congress, according to lawyers for RFE/RL, which has been in operation for 75 years.
Due to lawyers’ claims that the service will shut down in June without the funding, the money has not been sent so far.
Prague, Czech Republic’s headquarters for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (File: David W. Cerny/Reuters)
Kallas stated on Tuesday that the EU’s funding would not support the outlet’s global activities, but instead would concentrate on issues that are more in line with the bloc’s interests.
“So our focus should be really on assisting Radio Free Europe to operate and operate in those nations that are close by and heavily reliant on news from outside,” she said.
The EU’s top diplomat expressed hope that Radio Free Europe would receive more funding in the form of longer-term aid from the 27 member states. Kallas stated that the bloc has been looking for “strategic areas” where it can assist in light of Washington’s cut-off of life-saving foreign aid.
Both the outlet’s corporate and journalistic sediul are in the Czech Republic and Washington, DC. With more than 1,700 employees, the service has broadcast programs in 27 different languages in 23 countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East.
Russia has harshly criticized and outlawed the outlet because of its coverage of Ukraine’s war.
Yair Golan, the leader of the Israeli opposition, addressed criticism of the government at a press conference on Tuesday, where he was addressing remarks he made in an interview where he claimed the government killed “babies as a hobby.”
The United States says a new Israeli-approved organisation – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – is the key to resolving the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, but it already is receiving its fair share of criticism.
The GHF says it is going to start operations before the end of May. United Nations officials and humanitarian groups say it will not have the ability to deal with the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza as a result of Israel’s two-month-long blockade.
Instead, the aid groups that have been working in Gaza point out that they have the capacity to bring in food and other humanitarian supplies – if only Israel would let them.
So what is the GHF, and why is the situation in Gaza so desperate? Here’s everything you need to know:
What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
Officially independent, the GHF is an Israeli- and US-backed body that plans to distribute aid in the Gaza Strip.
One in five people in Gaza currently face starvation due to the Israeli blockade of food and aid while 93 percent are experiencing acute food shortages, according to a UN-backed assessment released last week.
Under increasing international pressure to allow in aid, Israel has sought to find a solution that it says prevents aid from falling into the hands of the Palestinian group Hamas. Humanitarian organisations say the vast majority of food and other supplies reaches Gaza’s civilian population and is not diverted to fighters.
The GHF will be overseen by Jake Wood, a US military veteran who ran Team Rubicon, an organisation that distributed humanitarian aid during natural disasters.
(Al Jazeera)
What’s the plan for delivering the aid?
Through the GHF, Palestinians in Gaza would receive a “basic amount of food”.
The initial plan was announced last Wednesday with a timeline of about two weeks before it was up and running.
It’s still unclear how the GHF will be funded, but the foundation says it will set up “secure distribution sites” to feed 1.2 million people in Gaza before expanding to feed every Palestinian in the territory.
It says it will coordinate with the Israeli military while security would be provided by private military contractors.
Why is the GHF being criticised?
The GHF initiative has been widely panned by aid groups and the UN.
The UN and humanitarian aid agencies say they already have the means to distribute desperately needed aid and alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. The GHF, on the other hand, is seen by critics as a way of politicising aid and not having the experience or capacity to bring aid to more than two million people.
The GHF “restricts aid to only one part of Gaza while leaving other dire needs unmet”, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said at the Security Council last week. “It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip. It is cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement.”
The UN and aid groups say the GHF plan violates basic humanitarian principles.
“We are concerned by the proposed aid mechanism for Gaza and are deeply worried that it will not allow for humanitarian aid to be distributed in a manner consistent with core humanitarian principles of impartiality, humanity, and independence,” a statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. “The ICRC cannot work under any mechanism that doesn’t allow us to uphold the principles and our modalities of work.”
Eleven humanitarian and human rights organisations signed a statement in which they “unequivocally reject the establishment” of the GHF, calling it:
“A project led by politically connected Western security and military figures, coordinated in tandem with the Israeli government, and launched while the people of Gaza remain under total siege. It lacks any Palestinian involvement in its design or implementation.”
That lack of Palestinian involvement, coupled with Israel’s approval for the project and the planned presence of the Israeli military “on the perimeter” of the distribution sites, according to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, raises Palestinian suspicions that the establishment of the GHF will give even more power to Israel over aid distribution in Gaza.
Why is aid not reaching Gaza?
Israel is blocking it.
Israel began preventing the entry of all food and other humanitarian supplies into Gaza on March 2 during a ceasefire, which it unilaterally broke on March 18.
Even before the blockade, Israel restricted the amount of aid that could come in, and some Israeli protesters also blocked and destroyed aid.
The situation has reached dire levels with the World Food Programme saying 70,000 children need urgent treatment for “acute malnutrition”.
How would the GHF displace Palestinians?
The UN said the GHF would weaponise aid by threatening the mass displacement of Palestinians.
Initial aid distribution sites would operate only out of southern and central Gaza, which the UN warned could lead to the displacement of Palestinians in northern Gaza as they are forced to move south for food and other aid.
“Humanitarian aid should not be politicized nor militarized,” the ICRC statement said. “This erodes the neutrality required to ensure assistance is delivered based solely on need, not political or military agendas.”
The initiative has also been labelled by many in the humanitarian sector as insufficient.
“Even if implemented, the plan’s proposed aid volumes fall short of the immense scale of needs in Gaza,” according to the ICRC. “The level of need right now is overwhelming, and aid needs to be allowed to enter immediately and without impediment.”
Gaza currently has 400 distribution points, and the ability and know-how to distribute aid effectively exists. With only a few distribution points under the GHF, people may be forced to walk long distances and carry heavy rations.
“The Problem is Not Logistics,” the statement from the 11 humanitarian groups read. “It Is Intentional Starvation.”
Enough. We demand rapid, safe, and unimpeded access to starving civilians in Gaza.
We have a plan. We have thousands of trucks of food at the border. Let us in. Let us work.https://t.co/J55f8shIEU pic.twitter.com/bTmcAMbG0e
People with disabilities or who are injured would struggle to navigate the terrain and reach distribution points. The roads in Gaza have been badly damaged over the past 19 months of war, and the intensity of Israel’s latest military operation in Gaza is only making things more difficult for Palestinians there.
Furthermore, the GHF’s assertions that it is independent and transparent have been criticised by aid groups.
“Despite branding itself as ‘independent’ and ‘transparent,’ the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would be wholly dependent on Israeli coordination and operates via Israeli-controlled entry points, primarily the Port of Ashdod and the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing,” the statement by the 11 aid groups read.
Israeli Prime Minister David Lammy criticized the Israeli government for intensifying its military campaign in Gaza, calling it “monstrous” and “repulsive.” Additionally, the UK claimed that its free trade negotiations with Israel were halted.
