Dan sementara itu orang Arab yang kaya-kaya petro dollar di
Timur Tengah kebanyakan kayak orang bengong aja ngelihat orang
Palestina kesusahan...
Saya ulang: kalo mau bantu apa susahnya sih membawa duit dari
Jedah pake truk ke Gaza?
Dan orang Islam tipikal di Indonesia teriak-teriak membanggakan
solidaritas antara orang Islam...
Taik kucing;
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EU looks to resume aid to Palestinians
by
Tuesday 16 May 2006 6:18 AM GMT
EU: Payments will not go to the government
The European Union has pledged to resume payments to the Palestinians
as soon as possible but says a new aid mechanism needs Israeli
support.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels expressed "serious concern"
about the deterioration in the humanitarian, economic and financial
situation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank after cuts in EU and US aid
payments.
EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she hoped
an aid mechanism proposed last week by the Quartet of Middle East
peace negotiators that would bypass the Hamas-led government could be
put in place by June.
"We are well aware of the urgency of the situation in the Palestinian
territories," Ferrero-Waldner told a news briefing.
"We have to get the parameters right, and then we have to get the
donors and the partners to accept what we will set up."
Foreign donors
The Palestinian Authority needs about $150 million a month to pay
salaries and other administrative costs. About two-thirds was covered
by foreign donations until the EU and the United States froze aid to
push Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past
peace accords.
About 165,000 Palestinian Authority employees have not received
salaries for March and April, in part because Israel has withheld $55
million in tax and customs revenues collected monthly on behalf of the
Palestinians.
Ferrero-Waldner said that she hoped a donors' meeting could be held
next week once the mechanism had been mapped out and that other
donors, including Israel and Arab states, would contribute.
"Now I think it is crucial that Israel also resume transfers of tax
and customs revenues, which are essential to prevent a crisis in the
Palestinian territories," she said.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it would not be possible
for the mechanism to cover salaries to all unpaid Palestinian
Authority employees.
Different story
While Washington had backed setting up the temporary aid mechanism at
the meeting of the Quartet - which includes Russia and the United
Nations - it was "a different story" whether the US would use it or
not, Ferrero-Waldner said.
Abbas is expected to address the
EU
"I cannot give you any reason but have to tell you that for the time
being I don't think they will use the mechanism."
Solana said it had not been decided whether the fund would also pay
salaries - something Washington has objected to.
An EU official said one possibility under discussion was the payment
of "emergency allowances", rather than salaries, directly to personnel
such as doctors. He said sanctions were not an issue as payments would
not go to the government.
Solana hinted that US congressional resistance might make it
impossible for the World Bank to run the mechanism.
"Probably the Congress would be very much (more) restrictive on
giving money to the Palestinians than we are," he said.
"We have to talk to the World Bank and see if they want to be the
agency in charge of the mechanism or not. There are other
possibilities," he said without spelling them out.
Addressing the EU
The EU has ruled out payments to or through the Palestinian Authority
but says Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, could have a
liaison role. Abbas will address the European Parliament and meet
senior EU officials in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday.
Asked whether the United States was ready to put money into a new aid
mechanism for the Palestinians, state department spokesman Sean
McCormack said Washington needed more details about the plan.
"The first step in this is to have a little more clarity and a little
more definition as to what this mechanism might be and specifically to
whom it might give its money and under what circumstances and for
what," McCormack told reporters in Washington.
"There will come a time, I'm sure, in the weeks and months ahead where
there is more clarity on that issue."
Agencies
By
You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/661F2822-EAC1-49C7-99B3-
6315FF0EAABF.htm
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