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Sharon
was Israeli Minister of Defense at the time of the massacres.
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BEIRUT,
September 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In a letter to the
Palestinian survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres, nine
Israeli women’s peace groups have told Palestinians in Beirut that
they support their efforts to indict the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon for “war crimes” committed against them almost exactly 20
years ago, a U.K. newspaper reported Tuesday, September 24.
Robert
Fisk, the Independent’s correspondent in Beirut, and a
witness for the Sabra and Shatila massacres said that the women’s
letter, which was sent via the United States, has amazed the Lebanese
lawyer representing the survivors of the massacre, for which Sharon
was held “personally responsible” by an Israeli inquiry.
“It
is a wonderful gesture,” Chibli Mallat said. “It is a wonderful
message to receive in these very dangerous and violent times.”
The
letter, from the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace in Israel, spoke
of the suffering of the Palestinians in 1982. “Our hearts ache to
recall the terrible massacre that took place in the Sabra and Shatila
refugee camps 20 years ago, which Israeli leaders allowed to take
place,” it says, reported the paper.
“We
condemn the brutal murderers of your loved ones and we condemn the
leaders who must be held accountable for these war crimes, Ariel
Sharon above all.”
On
June 26, the indictment chamber of the Brussels appeals court ruled
that a case, filed by twenty three Palestinians against Sharon, to
have him tried for his role in the massacres, could not proceed
because Sharon was not in Belgium, news agencies reported.
The
Palestinians based their case on a “universal competence” law that
enables Belgian courts to try cases of war crimes, crimes against
humanity and genocide, regardless of where the outrages took place.
A
Sabra and Shatila survivor who lost her father and six brothers in the
massacre told reporters: “My disappointment with Belgian justice is
complete.”
“I
would have preferred to have died than to hear this,” said the
37-year-old survivor, Souad Srour El-Marai, who was herself left
handicapped after she was raped and injured during the massacre.
In
a report published on its website, Amnesty International said that the
Belgian Parliament, in enacting the 1993 law providing for universal
jurisdiction over war crimes, as well as in its 1999 amendment to that
law extending its scope to crimes against humanity and genocide,
intended to provide Belgian courts with the full extent of universal
jurisdiction over these crimes permitted under international law.
In
fact, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 authorize Belgium to open an
investigation for grave breaches of humanitarian law regardless of the
location of the suspect and to seek the extradition of any person
suspected of grave breaches with a view to exercising universal
jurisdiction even if that person has never been in that country,
Amnesty said.
The
decision of the Belgian court is being appealed by the survivors,
whose lawyers include Mallat, Fisk reported.
Fisk
was one of the first journalists to be present at the scene of the
massacres in Lebanon, 1982. In his book, Pity The Nation, Fisk
said: “In the panic and hatred of battle, tens of thousands had been
killed in this country. But these people, hundreds of them had been
shot down unarmed.
“This
was a mass killing, an incident - how easily we used the word
“incident” in Lebanon - that was also an atrocity. It went beyond
even what the Israelis would have in other circumstances called a
terrorist activity. It was a war crime.
“We
might have accepted evidence of a few murders; even dozens of bodies,
killed in the heat of combat. Bur there were women lying in houses
with their skirts torn up to their waists and their legs wide apart,
children with their throats cut, rows of young men shot in the back
after being lined up at an execution wall.
“There
were babies - blackened babies because they had been slaughtered more
than 24-hours earlier and their small bodies were already in a state
of decomposition - tossed into rubbish heaps alongside discarded U.S.
army ration tins, Israeli army equipment and empty bottles of
whiskey.”
Israeli
troops surrounded the camps as the killings went on but were told by
their commanders not to interfere, reported Fisk. adding that at the
time Sharon was the Israeli Minister of Defense and was forced to
resign after the Israeli Kahan Commission condemned him and several
senior Israeli officers for not preventing the slaughter.
The
women’s letter recalls how the Palestinians were forced to flee
their homes in 1948, said the Independent.
“We
join you in mourning for those who were killed and maimed [in 1982]
and we condemn those who are responsible,” it says.
“We
hope you will accept the sincerity of our words and allow us to stand
in solidarity with you as we strive to build peace with justice
between Israel and Palestine.”
“The
specific mention of Mr Sharon’s name is likely to cause considerable
discomfort to the Israeli Prime Minister, who hired lawyers to defend
him in Brussels and who has not previously experienced any attempt by
Israelis to indict him,” said Fisk.
The
massacre continued for 40 hours from September 16 to 18, 1982.
The
day after, the U.N. Security Council Resolution 521, adopted
unanimously at the resumed 2396th meeting which stated:
“The Security Council …… Condemns the criminal massacre of
Palestinian civilians in Beirut…”
