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25.04.02, 23:39
Nurse shot through heart and man in wheelchair among Jenin dead
By Phil Reeves and Justin Huggler in Jerusalem and David Usborne in New York
25 April 2002
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Once upon a time in Jenin
Leading article: Israel must not be allowed to upset the Jenin investigation
Israel's efforts to defend its conduct in the Jenin refugee camp are fast
unravelling with revelations, published in The Independent today, that nearly
half of the Palestinian dead identified so far were civilians.
After five days of interviews with survivors of the assault – conducted
alongside a Human Rights Watch investigator – detailed accounts have emerged of
widespread atrocities committed by Israeli troops inside the camp.
Israel has insisted that it has nothing to hide about the events in Jenin, the
scene of eight days of fighting, but its officials say it may bar entry to a UN
fact- finding team unless it can determine some of the members and define its
terms of reference.
A high-level delegation from Israel is due at UN headquarters to see the UN
secretary general, Kofi Annan, this morning. UN officials said Mr Annan was
unwilling to alter the line-up of the mission's three main members.
They are the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, who will lead the team;
Cornelio Sommaruga, a former president of the International Committee of the
Red Cross; and Sadako Ogata, the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
But Mr Annan – who wants the mission to arrive in the region on Saturday – has
signalled to the main military advisor attached to the mission, the retired US
General William Nash, that he could use additional experts.
Israel wants Mr Annan to add members of the team – such as counter-terrorism
and military experts – who will be more sympathetic to Israel's argument that
the devastation was necessary to crush Palestinian militia groups, whose
suicide bombers have killed many Israelicivilians.
Israel's army says most those killed in Jenin were fighters and that it did
everything possible to protect civilians. But The Independent has found that
nearly half of the 50 dead identified so far were civilians, including women,
the elderly, and children.
They include a nurse in uniform who was shot in the heart as she tried to help
a wounded civilian, a 14-year-old boy killed when he tried to buy groceries
when a curfew was lifted, and a man in a wheelchair who was shot as he tried to
wheel himself up the street and then crushed under a tank.
The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, told a Congressional committee
yesterday that he had no evidence that a massacre had occurred.
Officials say that a significant number from the camp are still missing.
However, they could be in Israeli detention or in hiding.
Israeli armed forces were in action elsewhere yesterday. Tanks and troops
killed three Palestinians in raids on West Bank villages, Palestinian hospital
officials in Jenin said.
Negotiations, meanwhile, have been going on for a second day in Bethlehem to
try to end the siege of the church, where about 200 people, including
Palestinian gunmen, are trapped.
