Aid must be distributed fairly in conflict zones, UU expert warns

Governments in conflict zones hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami must ensure fair distribution of aid across crisis-hit regions so as to ensure shattered peace processes can be restarted, a University of Ulster specialist in peace agreements has said.

Professor Christine Bell, who last year attended a conference of the Asian Forum for Human Rights in Thailand, said people involved in fledgling peace initiatives in Sri Lanka and Acehin Indonesia may have died – and a fresh thrust will be needed to revive peace drives.

“Not just peace processes, but also conflicts have been obliterated by the tsunami – for the time being,” said Professor Bell, who holds a chair in International Public Law at the University.

She said that the monitoring of human rights in areas of conflict is key to creating first steps to peace and that relaunching peace hopes in stricken Indian Ocean regions will depend on building trust. A "vitally important element," said Professor Bell, would be the equitable allocation of aid to separatist heartlands as this would offer the opportunity to build cooperation.

Professor Bell, who lectures at the School of Law at the Magee campus, is among a list of international experts who have been invited to address at conference in England next Monday (24 January), organised as part of the prestigious “Wilton Park” conference series. Wilton Park is an independent executive agency of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which holds seminars on issues of global concern.

Next week’s conference will examine the relationship between peace agreements and “transitional justice”, the often temporary legal apparatus that forms a bridge between strife and a lasting peace based on legal standards.

(MB/SP)