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Annan And Rights Groups Slam Israel
CAIRO, March 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Tuesday joined international human rights groups in attacking Israeli "collective punishment" of Palestinians protesting Israeli occupation.
Addressing a meeting of Arab heads of state during a summit broadcast live on most Arab TV stations, he said the world had every right to criticize Israel's "excessively harsh response" to the Palestinian uprising, news agencies reported.
Meanwhile, siding with the Palestinians on two explosive issues, Amnesty International demanded that armed international observers be deployed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and supported the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
The right of return of some four million Palestinian refugees and their descendants has been a key Palestinian demand in peace talks with the Jewish state which came into existence in 1948 on originally Arab land.
Earlier this year, peace talks deadlocked over the issue, with Israel saying a return of millions of Palestinians to former homes in Israel would lead to the eventual destruction of the Jewish state.
Amnesty International Secretary-General Pierre Sane called on the international community on Monday to deploy unarmed observers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to deter violence, monitor the situation in the region, and to reduce friction between Israelis and Palestinians, the online edition of the right wing Israeli daily, the Jerusalem Post, reported Tuesday.
Israel has opposed the deployment of international observers, saying it would be an intrusion on its sovereignty. The U.S. backs the Israeli assertions.
At a Jerusalem press conference Monday, Sane presented a 10-point plan by Amnesty International that he said should serve as a basis for human-rights agreements in any future peace agreement, adding that any peace agreement not based on human rights would be short-lived.
The Palestinian right of return, endorsed by Amnesty International as one of the 10 points, is a "point of principle and an individual human right," Sane said, which should not be given away as a political concession, as "Palestinian refugees [had been] forcibly exiled from their homes."
Sane, who met with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on Sunday, said he had called on Arafat to abolish the death penalty within the Palestinian Authority.
According to Sane, Arafat responded that he is personally against the death penalty, but is under pressure by members of Palestinian society to punish collaborators.
Amnesty also denounced Israel's destruction of Palestinian property and travel restrictions on residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Accusing Israel of using excessive force against Palestinian demonstrations, Sane noted that he had no problem with the state's role of protecting its citizens, but said that demonstrations needed to be policed according to international law.
"Security - yes," he said, but emphasized that this should be "enforced within internationally agreed standards." He added that the closure of entire towns because of the actions of a few individuals is an act of collective punishment.
Sane said human rights violations were a cause of the continued friction. "One of the reasons we have a conflict is because people are not treated fairly," he said.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Amnesty was losing its credibility.
The group's suggestions on armed observers and Palestinian refugees "are just a recipe for more violence and friction," said Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin, referring to Sane's comments.
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