War Crimes
Update on Ariel Sharon: In early March a Belgian Court of Appeals agreed to a request submitted by lawyers for the survivors of the Sabra and Shatila massacre to reopen the legal debate concerning the admissibility of the case against Ariel Sharon for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide and Belgium’s competence to judge the case under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction. The legal team submitted the request in late February following a ruling earlier in the month by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that a Belgian arrest warrant for the acting Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo violated international law because it failed to respect the Minister’s “immunity from criminal jurisdiction.”
According to the lawyers for the survivors of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the ICJ did not rule that the mere fact of a criminal investigation against a sitting foreign minister (or head of state) violates international law; it only declared illegal the arrest warrant that had been issued against the former Congolese foreign minister. No arrest warrant was requested or issued in the case against Ariel Sharon that would prevent him from pursuing his national and international activities. Moreover, they state that from the perspective of Belgian law on universal jurisdiction there would be no obstacle to the issuance of an arrest warrant against Sharon as soon as he stops exercising his current functions. In addition the legal team points out that the arrest warrant issued against the Congolese foreign minister was not based on a count of genocide. According to the 1948 Genocide Convention, article IV: “Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible leaders, public officials or private individuals.” The Convention is considered to be universal in character. Ariel Sharon is charged with genocide according to factual elements of the case and the UN resolution that expressly declared the massacre at Sabra and Shatila as an ‘act of genocide.’ Other arguments developed in an additional submission to the Court will be heard at a hearing in Brussels on 15 May 2002.
In other developments over the past three months, Elie Hobeika, head of intelligence for the right-wing Christian Phalange militia that carried out the massacre, was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut in late January. Hobeika was expected to testify against Sharon and had recently met with a Belgian parliamentary delegation. Hobeika was name as the principal person responsible for the massacre in the report prepared by the Kahan commission, which conducted an internal investigation of the massacre in Israel and held Ariel Sharon indirectly responsible for the massacre. “In one infamous instance (recounted by an IDF soldier who gave testimony before Israel’s 1983 Kahan Commission inquiry), Hobeika coldly commanded a militia member who had radioed to ask what he should do with 40 women and children his unit had rounded up: ‘You know exactly what to do with them. Don’t ask me a question like that again!’” Since the lawsuit was lodged against Sharon three former Phalangist militiamen have died in mysterious circumstances.
Inside Israel, meanwhile, the government is stalling on a request to publish the full testimony and minutes of the Kahan Commission. More than a year ago member of the Knesset Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) filed a petition in the High Court for a full release of the information based on the argument that following Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon in May 2000 there is no longer a threat to security associated with the findings of the Commission. The Court initially rejected the petition based on a request by the state to allow the security establishment 6 months to review the materials. Officials only began reviewing documents in August and informed the Court that the process would likely last longer than 6 months. There is still no indication of when the review will be complete and Gal-On has threatened to go back to court.
For more information and resources, see:
International Committee for Justice for the Victims of Sabra and Shatila, http://www.indictsharon.net; Contact, Laurie King-Irani, North American Coordinator, [email protected]
Belgian Solidarity group website [name], http://www.sabra-shatila.be
Mallat Law Firm (a member of the plaintiff’s legal team), http://www.mallat.com
Petition for International Investigation Committee on Ariel Sharon’s crimes against humanity addressed to UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Mary Robinson. The petition requires 1 million signatures to become effective. See, http://www.PetitionOnline.com/warcrime/petition.html
54th Anniversary of the Deir Yassin Massacre (April 9): Events commemorating the Deir Yassin massacre, in which more than 100 men, women, and children were slaughtered by Zionist forces in April 1948 prior to the beginning of the first Arab-Israeli war in May, will be held around the world, including events in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and Malaysia. The anniversary of the massacre that created widespread fear and panic among the indigenous Palestinian Arab population and contributed to the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948 falls on the same day this year as the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day. No person has ever been held responsible, brought to trial, and convicted for the massacre.