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Above the Law for 54
Years
UN Fact-Finding Missions into Israeli War Crimes:
Mission Impossible?
(E/35/2002)
BADIL Resource Center
1 May 2002
For Immediate Release
"Arafat and Jenin -
What Sort of Deal Did Bush Strike?" asks an editorial published
yesterday in the US press (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 20 April 2002). The
same question is asked here in the Jenin refugee camp and by all those in
Palestine and elsewhere who know that justice and respect for human rights
and international law are the key to the solution of the 54 year-old
conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people.
Two days ago the Israeli government surrendered to pressure exerted by US
president Bush and accepted to relinquish its request for extradition of
the six prisoners allegedly involved in the killing of Israeli Minister of
Tourism Rehavam Ze'evi and in an arms smuggle for the Palestinian
Authority. The six will be transferred from President Arafat's Ramallah
compound to a Palestinian prison in Jericho and guarded by US and British
troupes dispatched for this purpose. Thus, Palestinian president Arafat is
finally free to leave the Ramallah compound where he has been held since
29 March by the Israeli occupation army. The movement of the UN Fact
Finding Mission into the events at the Jenin refugee camp, however,
remains blocked. 11 days after its approval by the UN Security Council (UNSC
Resolution 1405, 19 April 2002) and following two consecutive official
Israeli refusals to cooperate, the Fact- Finding Team has remained in
Geneva. Officials and analysts in Israel and the United States hold that
in return for freeing Arafat, the United States agreed to stand by Israel
in its confrontation with the UN Security Council and UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan over the Fact Finding Mission. Another session of the Security
Council is scheduled later today, evidence of Israeli war crimes in Jenin
is being erased day after day and rumors hold that Kofi Annan is
considering to drop the Mission completely. International scrutiny and
investigation into Israel's war crimes - and justice for the victims - a
mission impossible?
An Earlier Case Revisited:
The 1996 UN Investigation into Israel's War Crime at Qana, South Lebanon
On 18 April 1996, during a massive Israeli military offensive on Lebanon
code-named "Operation Grapes of Wrath," approximately 800
civilians were sheltering in a United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
base in the village of Qana, South Lebanon. They had assumed - incorrectly
- that since international law strictly prohibits the targeting of
civilian structures and UN facilities they would be safe under UNIFIL's
protection. Just after 2 PM on April 18, a barrage of proximity-fuse
shells crashed directly into the pre-fabricated building. Minutes later
106 people lay dead, many burned and dismembered beyond recognition.
On 25 April 1996 the UN
General Assembly adopted a resolution (UNGA Res. A/RES/50/22 C)
characterizing Israel's actions in the "Grapes of Wrath"
offensive as "grave violations of international laws relating to the
protection of civilians during war." Then UN Secretary General
Boutros Boutros Ghali appointed a team to investigate Israel's bombing of
the UNIFIL compound. The team was composed of military experts and headed
by the Dutch General Franklin Van Kappen. It conducted an official on-site
investigation of the Qana incident, interviewed all available witnesses,
including UNIFIL staff and Israeli officials, and obtained maps and
ballistic evidence. According to experts familiar with this UN
investigation, the initial report concluded that the shelling and killing
of 106 civilians inside the UNIFIL compound by Israel was deliberate and
that there was no possibility of an accident. When former UN Secretary
General Boutros Ghali wanted to publish the report, he was threatened that
this would cost him his job and he was forced to publish a revised report.
This report concluded that "while the possibility cannot be ruled out
completely, it is unlikely that the shelling of the UNIFIL compound was
the result of gross technical and/or procedural error." The Van
Knappen report also indicated that IDF officials of "some
seniority" were involved in orders to fire upon the base, which they
knew was sheltering hundreds of civilians. International human rights
organizations also conducted investigations and concluded that the
shelling of the UNIFIL compound was most likely deliberate, not mistaken.
The United States and Israel vigorously contended that the attack had been
an unfortunate mistake. No further action was taken by the United Nations.
Moreover, the United Nations has yet to act upon a petition filed by
families of the victims of Qana with the UN Human Rights Commission. The
families' petition requests the UN to re-open its investigation.
For more on the case of Qana and investigations conducted by the UN and
independent human rights organizations see:
www.merip.org (see Press Information
Notes PIN, No. 11)
www.amnesty.org/news/1996/51504996.htm
www.hrw.org/hrw/summaries/s.israel-lebanon979.html
END ISRAEL'S IMPUNITY FOR WAR CRIMES!
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