-Caveat Lector-
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters04-16-053815.asp?reg=EUROPE
Israeli activist urges Britain to pressure Sharon
Reuters, 16 April 2002
LONDON, April 16 - Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery accused
Britain on Tuesday of hurting his country by failing to rein in Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's military incursion into the West Bank.
Avnery, who co-founded Israel's Gush Shalom movement dedicated to
peace between Israel and the Palestinians, appealed to British Prime
Minister Tony Blair to use his influence in Washington to put greater
pressure on Sharon.
''I came to Great Britain (because) it seems the only person (U.S.
President George W.) Bush is listening to is Mr Blair,'' Avnery, on a
short trip to Britain to lobby for peace, told reporters.
''Mr Blair was standing beside Mr Bush when it was decreed that
(Sharon's) action must stop. But what does he say now that it has not
stopped?'' Avnery asked.
''I think I can speak for the whole Israeli peace movement in saying
you are sticking a knife in our back. You are not helping Israel. You
are helping Mr Sharon.''
Sharon said on Monday his troops were ''on the way out,'' 11 days
after Bush's first appeal for their withdrawal from the West Bank.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed or wounded in the
offensive launched more than two weeks ago after a wave of Palestinian
suicide bombings killed dozens of Israelis.
Avnery was speaking at a joint news conference with Palestinian
representative Afif Safieh and British actress Vanessa Redgrave.
''The British...betrayed the Jews during the Holocaust and they are
betraying the Palestinians now. That is why I am deeply ashamed and
horrified at this moment,'' Oscar-winning activist Redgrave said.
''Those who stand by and smile and do not...use their power and
authority to insist on assisting to stop or intervene in the massacre,
they have become complicit in that massacre,'' Redgrave, a veteran
campaigner for the Palestinian cause, said.
''That is the responsibility our governments have for these
massacres,'' she said.
Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited.
========================
Amnesty International calls on the UN Security Council to immediately
deploy an independent investigation into human rights abuses in Jenin
Amnesty International, 16 April, 2002
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/cgi-bin/eatsoup.cgi?id=PLwbDNRDxIcAAAH-DQA
16 April, 2002
Amnesty International, whose delegates are now carrying out
investigations in Jenin, called on the Security Council to instruct the
UN Secretary-General to deploy, without delay, an authoritative team of
international experts to investigate the alleged human rights abuses
that took place in Jenin within the past twelve days.
"According to the principles of international law, when deaths have
occurred in disputed circumstances there must be an impartial
investigation with the cooperation of all sides," said Amnesty
International. "We are calling for international experts to be deployed
and permitted to enter Jenin NOW with a mandate to carry out a prompt,
independent and thorough investigation and to report their findings
publicly."
Amnesty International said that an adequately resourced independent
international investigation team should be composed of persons, known
for their impartiality and integrity, with proven expertise in the
conduct of criminal and forensic investigations. It should include
experts in the field of forensics, ballistics, human rights and
humanitarian law. The team should also include people who have proven
expertise in the protection and support of victims and witnesses,
including women and children. The team should report publicly as soon as
possible.
In order for the team to carry out its functions both sides must
cooperate fully, and grant the team unimpeded access to people, places
and documents, said the organisation.
The agreement before Israel's High Court of Justice allowing access
to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which, like every other
organisation, was unable to gain access to Jenin after 3 April was "a
first step". The agreement came in answer to petitions demanding that
the Israeli Defence Forces do not bury Palestinian bodies.
The organisation also welcomed the resolution of the UN Commission
on Human Rights on 5 April mandating the High Commissioner for Human
Rights to lead a mission to the Occupied Territories and to report her
findings to the Commission. However, the Israeli Government has not yet
agreed to this mission. Amnesty International believes a specific
inquiry, with full powers and resources to an conduct in-depth
investigations into the allegations concerning Jenin, is urgently
required based on the reports received by its delegates in the region.
All contents copyright © Amnesty International unless otherwise marked.
========================
HUMAN RIGHTS DELEGATES ARRIVE AT JENIN
Amnesty International, 16 April, 2002
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/cgi-bin/eatsoup.cgi?id=PLv9MdRDxIcAAGmBJpA&a=
16 April, 2002
An Amnesty International delegation reached Jenin, after passing through
two Israeli army checkpoints and walking for two hours before gaining
access to the city.
The delegation, which includes Javier Zúńiga, Director of Regional
Strategy in the International Secretariat of the organisation; Kathleen
Cavanaugh, from the Department of Law at Galway University, Ireland; and
Derrick Pounder, Professor of Forensic Medicine in Dundee University,
Scotland, are still seeking access to the hospital and the refugee camp.
Amnesty International's delegates said:
"We fear that if investigations are not carried out at once to clarify
the circumstances of the killings of hundreds of Palestinians in Jenin
refugee camp, crucial evidence may be destroyed as Israel continues to
impede access to the camp to the outside world."
The Amnesty International delegates have been talking to
Palestinians who have escaped from Jenin, as well as residents of Jenin
and the camps, by telephone. Amnesty International has also received
eyewitness testimony of houses being shelled or bulldozed on top of the
residents, and of Palestinians, including children being left to bleed
to death in the streets.
The Israeli Defence Forces have said that the scores who were killed
in Jenin died in combat.
Amnesty International's 20-page report 'Israel/Occupied Territories, The
heavy price of Israeli incursions' (12 April 2002) is available online
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150422002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES
PDF:
http://web.amnesty.org/aidoc/aidoc_pdf.nsf/index/MDE150422002ENGLISH/$File/MDE1504202.pdf
All contents copyright © Amnesty International unless otherwise marked.
========================
Palestinian Demands Probe Into Jenin Massacre'
Reuters, Apr. 16, 2002
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/local/3074430.htm
Posted on Tue, Apr. 16, 2002
Palestinian Demands Probe Into Jenin Massacre'
NICOSIA - (Reuters) - A Palestinian cabinet minister demanded an inquiry
on Tuesday into allegations that Israeli troops massacred Palestinians
in Jenin refugee camp, scene of the fiercest fighting in Israel's West
Bank offensive.
Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian minister for planning and
international cooperation, also expressed fears for the safety of
Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouthi, captured by Israel on Monday and
accused of masterminding militant attacks in Israel.
``It is really a continuing attempt (by Israel) to blow up any
chances of stopping this conflict... I am really very worried about his
life,'' Shaath told reporters on the sidelines of a United Nations
conference in the Cypriot capital Nicosia in support of Middle East
peace.
According to Palestinian eyewitness accounts, Shaath said, close to
500 Jenin residents were killed as Israeli forces swept through the
town, including ``at least'' 60 to 70 who were summarily executed.
``The Israeli army took six days to complete its massacre in Jenin
and six days to clean it up... there is a crime here demanding an
immediate investigation,'' he said.
========================
Israel/Occupied Territories:
Israeli military action is collective punishment
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150452002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\I
SRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES
AI-index: MDE 15/045/2002 12/04/2002
The Palestinians must be hit and it must be painful. We must cause them
losses, victims, so they feel the heavy price" Ariel Sharon, Israeli
Prime Minister, speaking to the press on 5 March
-- Ibrahim Jazmawi, a medical assistant, died when a tank fired on two
clearly marked ambulances of the Palestine Red Crescent Society on
Tulkarem's main street while the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) were
occupying the West Bank town on 7 March.
-- Samir Sadi Sababeh, aged 45, who was deaf and mute, was killed on 11
March by IDF soldiers when he failed to obey their summons to cross the
main street of Jebaliya as they blew up buildings in the town.
These are just illustrative cases researched by Amnesty International
delegates while in Israel and the Occupied Territories in March 2002.
Findings from the delegates are being released today, as reports of
human rights abuses keep coming in. Amnesty International is concerned
that scores of Palestinians who posed no evident threat to the lives of
others have been killed during Israel's military incursions into towns
and villages in the Occupied Territories since 27 February 2002.
"The IDF's conduct raises concern that the main aim of the operation
is to collectively punish all Palestinians," the organization's
delegates declared, stressing that the Israeli army took actions which
were not clearly or obviously justified by military necessity and which
breached international human rights and humanitarian law.
The IDF killed and targeted medical personnel, ambulances and
medical facilities, and fired randomly at houses and at people in the
streets, even when curfews were lifted. Mass arbitrary arrests have been
carried out in a manner designed to degrade those detained.
In al-Am'ari, Tulkarem and Deheisheh refugee camps all males aged
between 16 and 45 were ordered to report to a specified place, often a
school. They were sorted, handcuffed tightly with plastic strip-cuffs
and blindfolded. According to consistent accounts, detainees have been
ill-treated and kept without food and not allowed to go to the toilet
for the first 24 hours of their detention.
Delegates saw remains of houses which had been destroyed by the IDF
in acts of collective punishment.
"It seemed clear that most of these actions aimed at punishing and
humiliating the Palestinian population as a whole,"Amnesty International
delegates said.
When the IDF occupied houses or apartment buildings which appeared
to be in strategic positions, they systematically trashed people's
homes, tearing clothes, breaking furniture and ripping books, including
the Qur'an.
"In any army of the world, soldiers who behave like the IDF,
destroying property and looting, should be immediately court
martialled," added David Holley, an independent military adviser who was
part of the delegation.
A partial IDF pull back took place after the arrival of US envoy
Anthony Zinni on 14 March. However, the destruction and gross violations
of human rights inflicted by the IDF reached unprecedented levels during
the second wave of invasions. "Operation Defensive Wall" started on 29
March 2002 with an attack on President Yasser Arafat's headquarters in
Ramallah and spread to five towns and some 30 villages in the West Bank.
Ambulances and medical personnel have again been barred or hindered from
removing and treating the sick and wounded. Journalists and
non-governmental organizations have been unduly impeded in investigating
the events.
Today in Jenin, the IDF is continuing operations largely in secret,
with media, emergency medical services, the International Committee of
the Red Cross and UN agencies denied access to the refugee camp. Since
Jenin refugee camp is still barred to the outside world, reports that
35-40% of Palestinian homes have been demolished can not be confirmed.
As one resident said to Amnesty International: "The camp smells of
death. Bodies are buried under the rubble of houses; others were crushed
by tanks and others still lie in the streets."
According to reports received by the organization Israeli troops are
shooting at ambulances with people in them and tanks crushing empty
ambulances, distrupting urgent medical services.
Amnesty International continues to repeat its call to the Israeli
authorities to cease violations of human rights and humanitarian law and
for international observers with a clear and transparent human rights
mandate to be deployed in the region. The organization also continues to
condemn all deliberate attacks on civilians by Palestinian armed groups
which have left scores of Israelis dead or injured, and calls on
Palestinian armed groups to cease targeting Israeli civilians and end
unlawful killings of Palestinians suspected of "collaborating" with
Israel.
**Amnesty International's Secretary General, Irene Khan, has written to
the United Nations Security Council welcoming recent resolutions on
Israel and the Occupied Territories and requesting the Security Council
to: adopt measures for the effective protection of human rights of all
Palestinians and Israelis; call on the Israeli government to allow
immediate and unhindered access to all areas by medical personnel, the
United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well
as to lift undue impediments to access by observers, including
journalists, non-governmental organizations, and other representatives
of civil society; encourage the parties concerned to agree without
further delay to an international human rights monitoring presence in
the region to help prevent further serious and widespread abuses of
international human rights and humanitarian law.
** Amnesty International's report "Israel/Occupied Territories, The
heavy price of Israeli incursions" (MDE 15/042/2002) is also available
on the web.
\ENDS
public document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW web :
http://www.amnesty.org
Amnesty International is impartial and independent of any government,
political persuasion or religious creed.
© Amnesty International
========================
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=152850&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0
Tuesday, April 16, 2002 Iyyar 4, 5762
Israel Time: 09:17 (GMT+3)
Last update - 17:05 16/04/2002
Belgian court ruling throws doubt on Sharon trial
By Reuters
BRUSSELS - A Brussels court on Tuesday threw into doubt a bid to try
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Belgium when it rejected a similar case
against a former Congolese foreign minister accused of crimes against
humanity.
The same appeals court is considering whether a Belgian court has
the right to try Sharon for alleged war crimes over a 1982 massacre of
Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut during
Israel's thrust into Lebanon.
"The legal proceedings were declared inadmissible," appeals court
spokesman Guy Delvoie said after a ruling which dismissed a case against
the Congolese accused, Yerodia Aboulaye Ndombasi, on the grounds he did
not live in Belgium.
"No prosecution can be started against any defendant in absentia,"
the spokesman said.
Yerodia was accused of inciting hatred against ethnic Tutsis in
August 1998, in speeches referring to "vermin" and "extermination" four
years after massacres of ethnic Tutis and moderate Hutus in neighbouring
Rwanda.
Michael Verhaeghe, one of the lawyers representing the group of
Palestinians who brought the suit against Sharon, said he saw the court
dismissing a request to reopen an inquiry into the 74-year-old Israeli
leader for war crimes and genocide.
"I would be very surprised if it's a different decision in our
case," Verhaeghe told Reuters. "It's hard to imagine the court would set
this condition in April and a few months later decide something else."
He added that any decision would likely be appealed to the Brussels
Supreme Court.
Sharon's lawyer Adrien Massert welcomed the ruling, calling it an
"excellent decision."
"The court backed our first argument that Belgium could only proceed
in such a case if the accused is arrested on Belgian soil," he told
Reuters. "Our arguments are sound."
Indirectly responsible
Sharon was Israel's defense minister at the time of the killings. An
internal Israeli investigation in 1983 found Sharon, whose troops ringed
the camps during the massacre by Lebanese Christian militiamen,
indirectly responsible.
The Belgian court said in a statement that the latest ruling should
be seen as applying only to the Yerodia case: "It is not binding for
instance in the Sharon case for the judges who will decide on the case
after the hearing of May 15."
The ruling on the Sharon probe is expected as early as June.
Both cases were brought under a controversial Belgian law which
claims universal jurisdiction in human rights cases regardless of where
the alleged crimes are committed.
Under one interpretation of the law, an investigation can only be
launched in a case where the alleged crime was committed abroad when the
defendant has been found in Belgium.
The Yerodia probe suffered a setback in February when the
Hague-based International Court of Justice upheld his immunity from
prosecution in Belgium on grounds that he was a serving minister when
the lawsuit was brought.
As a result, the ICJ ordered Belgium to drop an international arrest
warrant it issued in April 2000 against the former minister for crimes
against humanity.
The legal adviser to the Belgian Foreign Ministry said at the time
the ICJ ruling meant he saw the case against Sharon as now being closed.
Yerodia played down his comments, made shortly after Tutsi-led
rebels attacked Congolese capital Kinshasa in August 1998. He said he
was referring to invading forces from Rwanda and Uganda who backed the
revolt and not a specific ethnic group. But 19 Tutsis filed a complaint
against him in Belgium.
© Copyright 2002 Ha`aretz
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