UNITED
NATIONS, May 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan disbanded his fact-finding mission into the
Israeli army assault on the Jenin refugee camp late Thursday, May 2,
without the mission even having set foot in the Middle
East.
U.N.
spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan sent letters to the president of
the U.N. Security Council, the government of Israel
and the Palestinian
Authority, confirming the decision he made Wednesday, May 1, in the
face of Israel's
continued opposition, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Eckhard
said Annan had also written to the mission leader, Finland's former
president Martti Ahtisaari, and other members of the team to thank
them "for the dedication, energy and time that they have given
the United Nations" since they were appointed on April 22.
The
decision to disband the team -- which had been cooling its heels in
Geneva for more than a week -- sparked anger throughout the Arab
world and expressions of regret in Europe.
Speaking
in Washington, where he joined U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
and other members of the so-called international quartet on
Thursday, May 2, Annan suggested that he would set up some other
kind of inquiry if asked to do so by the U.N. Security Council.
The
council appeared paralyzed, however, unable to reconcile the demands
of the Arab
countries and those of the United States.
As
night fell at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the Palestinian
observer to the United Nations, Nasser Al-Kidwa, told reporters that
he might try to call for a special emergency session of the U.N.
General Assembly.
The
Assembly may hold such a session if the council is unable to
exercise its primary responsibility for maintaining international
peace and security because of a lack of unanimity among its five
permanent members.
"If
there is no action here, we will have to look for action in the
General Assembly," Al-Kidwa told reporters.
The
council was not even able to agree on a letter drafted by its
president for May, Kishore Mahbubani, ambassador of Singapore to the
U.N., which took note of Annan's decision "with deep
regret" and deplored Israel's
decision not to cooperate with the fact-finding team.
The
draft letter also requested Annan "to collate all available
information regarding recent events" at Jenin and if possible
to produce "an accurate, thorough, balanced and credible
report."
Annan,
however, had already made it clear that that course of action was
impossible without Israel's
full cooperation.
Writing
to the council on Wednesday, Annan said he regretted that "the
long shadow cast by recent events in the Jenin refugee camp will
remain in the absence of such a fact-finding exercise."
The
Palestinians have accused the Israeli occupation army of massacring
up to 500 civilians in a nine-day assault on the refugee camp.
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"It
is totally unacceptable and horrific beyond belief … This is
morally repugnant," U.N. Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen
said of the Jenin massacre.
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On
Thursday, April 18, U.N. special envoy Terje Roed Larsen described
the Jenin massacre as “horrific beyond belief,” slamming Israel
for not allowing rescue teams in after the attack.
Visiting
the northern West Bank camp with Red Cross and U.N. workers, Larsen
said: "It is totally destroyed, it looks like an earthquake has
hit it."
"It
is totally unacceptable and horrific beyond belief," he told
AFP. "It is totally unacceptable that the government of Israel
for 11 days did not allow search and rescue teams to come. This is
morally repugnant."
Israel
had declared the camp a closed military zone when it invaded it
April 3, and refused to allow aid groups or media in afterwards,
except for small groups accompanied by the occupation army.
“We
have expert people here who have been in war zones and earthquake
and they say they have never seen anything like it," Larsen
said.
He
said his organization would try to find out exactly what happened in
the nine-day Israeli military offensive in the camp.
Human
rights groups protested Wednesday, April 17, at the lack of rescue
efforts in Jenin.
"It
is shocking that the [Israeli] authorities have not asked for help
and that the international community is not offering it,"
Amnesty International said. "Help is needed now to save what
life there is left."
Speaking
from inside the ruined camp, Amnesty representative Javier Zuniga
said: "This is one of the worst scenes of devastation I have
ever witnessed. There is a real possibility that people are still
alive under the rubble of their former homes."
Mary
Robinson, the U.N. human rights chief, urged Israel Wednesday, April
17, to let her travel there with a delayed fact-finding mission,
citing "growing concerns over recent events in Jenin".
The
U.N. Human Rights Commission wanted to investigate the violence, but
Israel failed to respond.
The
disbanding of a U.N. mission to Jenin was declared a “disaster”
for Palestinians that confirms Israel as a country above the law,
thanks to unlimited U.S. support.
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"It
is a disaster. We wanted the commission to make sure these war
crimes will not reoccur," chief Palestinian negotiator
Saeb Erakat said.
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"It
is a disaster. We wanted the commission to make sure these war
crimes will not reoccur," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb
Erakat said.
"Disbanding
the fact-finding commission is a license for [Israeli Premier Ariel]
Sharon and his government to do it again, to commit more massacres,
to commit more war crimes," Erakat added.
Lebanese
President Emile Lahoud denounced the "dangerous surrender"
of the U.N. chief when he scrapped a probe mission to the
Palestinian refugee camp because Israel refused to cooperate with
it.
"It
is a dangerous surrender of the United Nations before Israel which
once more did not care about the international will, represented by
the [U.N.] Security Council," said Lahoud in a statement.
"The
cancellation of the U.N. mission did not only have a negative impact
on the credibility of the international organization, but is also
dangerous because it gives Israel the right to veto international
resolutions," AFP reported Lahoud as saying.
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“It
is a dangerous surrender of the United Nations before
Israel,” Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said.
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"It
is very painful and unacceptable that the big powers, particularly
the Security Council permanent members, allow Israel to impose its
will on the world," he added.
Newspapers
and political analysts in the Arab world were infuriated by the
scrapping of the mission, and lashed out at the world’s big
countries, particularly the U.S.
In
Paris, France lamented Annan's decision to disband the Jenin
fact-finding mission.
"France
regrets this outcome," foreign ministry spokesman Francois
Rivasseau told a press conference. "It was in everyone's
interest that this team shed light on what happened in Jenin."
And
in Brussels, the disbanding of the U.N. mission to Jenin was dubbed
‘highly regrettable,’ according to the European Commission
external relations spokesman Gunnar Wiegand.
