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Annan Agrees To Israeli Delay Request For Fact-finding Mission
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Palestinian looks at the damage next to the rubble left after
Israeli bulldozers toppled his home in Jenin |
UNITED
NATIONS, April 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan agreed late Tuesday, April 23, to briefly delay his
fact-finding team into the Israeli army's assault on the Jenin refugee
camp to discuss changes to its make-up with Israel which says it is
seeking a “more balanced” team, news agencies reported.
Israel's
ambassador to the United Nations, Yehuda Lancry, said he delivered a
message to Annan from his government asking for talks on a "more
balanced" team including experts on military operations and
counter-terrorism.
On
Monday, April 22, Annan appointed Finland's former president, Martti
Ahtisaari, to head a three-person team to look into what happened at
Jenin, where Palestinians say more than 500 civilians were massacred
by Israeli forces. Israel denies the charge, asserting that the camp
was a center for “terrorist” attacks and says 23 of its soldiers
died in a fierce, nine-day battle with Palestinian resistance
fighters.
The
destruction of the camp caused widespread outrage. Amnesty
International said it had found "credible evidence of serious
breaches of human rights and humanitarian law" by the Israelis.
In
a statement in London, it said "these include unlawful killings,
excessive use of lethal force, and failure to give civilians warning
before attacks by helicopters."
"Given
that the government has stated that it has nothing to hide, Amnesty
International calls on the Israeli Government to permit the UN
fact-finding team to undertake its vital task as planned without
delay," a statement said.
"The
government's questioning of the composition of the team... flies in
the face of the expressed desire of the international community to
find out the facts of what happened in Jenin," added the
statement, issued in New York.
Lancry
said Israel wanted the U.N. inquiry to include "the terrorist
network that has flourished in the Jenin refugee camp and which
generated the Israeli military operation." He said two or three
Israeli experts would come to New York Thursday to meet Annan.
Annan's
spokesman's office said Annan "agreed to postpone the departure
of the fact-finding team to allow this consultation to take place, but
he expects the team to be in the Middle East by this Saturday,"
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
It
said Annan "would not discuss his choice of team members"
who include Sadako Ogata of Japan, former UN high commissioner for
refugees, and Cornelio Sammaruga, the Swiss former head of the
International Red Cross. But Annan "did not rule out adding
additional experts as might be deemed necessary," the office said
in a statement.
He
had already appointed a retired U.S. general, William Nash, to act as
military adviser and a senior Irish police officer, Peter Fitzgerald,
to advise it on police matters. Both men served in U.N. military
forces in Bosnia.
But
Lancry said "since we are talking about a military operation, we
need military experts as full-fledged members of the team, not as
advisers."
He
diplomatically added that Israel had "no concerns about any
specific individual in the team" and insisted that his government
was "ready to cooperate with the United Nations around the
fact-finding team."
But
the bluntness of the Israeli demand was unmistakable. Asked whether
Israel would prevent the team reaching Jenin unless it were changed,
he said: "For the time being yes."
Lancry
also indicated that Israel did not share Annan's sense of urgency for
the team to start work. It should "take two or three days"
to clarify the points Israel had raised and "maybe next week we
will meet to assess the possibilities," he said.
In
London, Britain warned Israel it is doing itself irreparable damage in
the eyes of the international community by failing to cooperate with
the UN mission. "If Israel has nothing to hide they have
absolutely no reason not to allow this team to go ahead," Junior
Foreign Office minister Ben Bradshaw told the BBC.
Bradshaw
said that the move, "would be a very foolish thing to do, the
latest in a string of cataclysmic public relations mistakes by the
Israeli government."
"We
shall be making our views very plain to the Israel government at the
earliest opportunity.
"It's
absolutely essential that Israel realizes that it cannot continue to
defy the international community and world opinion..."
Bradshaw
said: "Israel can stop this (mission) going ahead... but it's not
in Israel's power to dictate who forms the members of that team."
Ahtisaari
was just about to depart New York for Geneva to assemble his team
before leaving for the Middle East when the row erupted, initially as
a public radio report in Jerusalem.
The
Israeli move took the U.N. by surprise - Annan's spokesman learned of
it from an AFP reporter - and left members of the Security Council
flat-footed.
Council
members had just scheduled emergency consultations to discuss a bomb
explosion at the West Bank headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat when the Israeli radio report broke, and they were unaware of
the meeting between Annan and Lancry until it was over.
The
council issued a brief statement to the press expressing its
"full support for the secretary general" and saying it
expected Israel to cooperate with him. The council also warned Israel
that no harm should come to Arafat, besieged in his headquarters in
the town of Ramallah.
Council
members also insisted Israel lift the siege of Arafat's compound and
allow him to move freely, council president Sergei Lavrov, Russian
ambassador to the United Nations, said.
Speaking
earlier to IslamOnline, Dr. Hassan Abu Taleb, a political analysts in
the Al Ahram Center For Political and Strategic Studies said that
Israel will try its best to win time to cover up for its crime and
that time played a very important role in situations of this nature.
“In
a crime like this, the more time is lost, the more evidence for the
massacre could be hidden and the party responsible could be let off
the hook,” said Abu Taleb.
He
added that time could also be taken to place pressure on eyewitnesses
who are all Palestinian civilians who have no international or local
forces to protect them or to fend off these pressures.
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