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Annan
Protests Israeli Aggression Against Palestinians
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| Annan
for the first time describes Israeli occupation of Arab land
as "illegal". |
UNITED
NATIONS, March 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a letter to hawkish Israeli premier
Ariel Sharon obtained in the United Nation Monday, compared Israeli
occupation army’s offensives against the Palestinians to an
all-out conventional war.
"I
feel obliged to call your attention to disturbing patterns in the
treatment of civilians and humanitarian relief workers by the
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)," Annan wrote in the letter, dated
March 12, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"Judging
from the means and methods employed by the IDF – F-16 fighter
bombers, helicopter and naval gunships, missiles and bombs of heavy
tonnage – the fighting has come to resemble all-out conventional
warfare."
In
his letter, Annan said he was "especially dismayed by the IDF's
failure to protect and respect ambulances and medical
personnel."
Recalling
the death on March 7 of Kamal Hamadan, a guard employed by the U.N.
relief agency for Palestinian refugees, Annan said Israeli claims
that ambulances were used to smuggle weapons were "unfounded
and unsubstantiated".
The
letter was dated the day the United Nations Security Council
unanimously adopted the first resolution in its history explicitly
referring to a Palestinian state, co-existing with Israel, AFP said.
Hours
before the council voted, Annan, in his strongest public statement
to date on the 18-month-old Al-Aqsa Intifada, for the first time
described the Israeli occupation of Arab land as
"illegal".
Annan
spoke of Israel’s “obligation to respect the fundamental
principles and rules of international humanitarian law and the law
of armed conflict."
In
his speech before the Security Council in a meeting convened at his
request, the Secretary-General said he was profoundly disturbed by
the increasing use of heavy weaponry by Israel in Palestinian
civilian areas. He also noted that large-scale military operations
in pursuit of Palestinian resistance activists had taken place
throughout civilian areas and refugee camps in the West Bank and
Gaza, causing large-scale loss of life, just as international
agencies reported growing disregard on the part of the Israeli
forces for the safety of medical personnel.
On
their side, Annan said, "the Palestinians have played their
full part in the escalating cycle of violence, counter-violence and
revenge," the U.N. website reported.
Addressing
the Israelis, he said: "you have the right to live in peace and
security within secure internationally recognized borders. But you
must end the illegal occupation." He called on Israel to stop
the bombing of civilian areas, the assassinations, the unnecessary
use of lethal force, the demolitions and "the daily humiliation
of ordinary Palestinians." Such actions, he pointed out,
"gravely erode Israel's standing within the international
community and further fuel the fires of hatred, despair and
extremism among Palestinians."
Amnesty
International has declared in a report issued March 13 that it will
send a research mission to the Palestinian occupied territories to
report on the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian civilians.
“As
the human rights situation is increasingly deteriorating on an
unprecedented scale, an Amnesty International delegation is leaving
today on a research mission to Israel and the Occupied
Territories,” the Amnesty website reported.
The
Amnesty International mission – the ninth of its kind since the
beginning of the Intifada – will focus on the Israeli Forces'
actions in the Palestinian refugee camps over the last ten days.
Amnesty International's continuing concerns include the unlawful
killings of civilians, arbitrary and mass abductions, the excessive
and disproportionate use of force, house demolitions and closures
affecting residents of villages and towns in the Occupied
Territories, in addition to killings carried out by armed groups,
Amnesty added.
The
delegation is composed of David Holley, a military expert, and
Elizabeth Hodgkin, a staff member of the International Secretariat
of Amnesty International.
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