gelatik
03.05.02, 11:24
Amnesty Finds Evidence Confirming Atrocities in Jenin & Elsewhere
WASHINGTON, May - An Amnesty International delegate returning from Israel and
the Occupied Territories on Wednesday, May 1, said his organization found
evidence confirming reports of human rights violations by Israeli occupation
soldiers in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin and elsewhere.
"Jenin was really a confirmation what we have known already," said Kamal
Samari, a senior press officer who accompanied Amnesty's secretary general
Irene Khan on this weekend's delegation.
Although Khan, Samari and other delegates have returned, teams of investigators
remain in the region.
Samari said that Amnesty found confirmation of "vast… and extensive demolition
of part of the camp… we called it ground zero because houses were really
flattened."
Since March 29, Israel has continued a massive military offensive in
Palestinian territories in defiance of calls from the United Nations and the
United States - its strongest ally - to withdraw and to cease further
incursions.
"We have told the Israelis to refrain from further incursions," a senior U.S.
State Department official said Wednesday.
Jenin has become a kind of catchword for the bloody incursions that continue
unabated; on April 19, the UN Security Council passed resolution 1405,
reaffirming previous resolutions calling for Israeli withdrawal from
Palestinian territories and welcoming the initiative taken by UN Secretary-
General Kofi Annan in trying to establish a fact-finding mission to Jenin.
But Annan announced Wednesday that he would be disbanding the mission, after
repeated rejections and delays by Israeli authorities, who initially accepted
the idea but then insisted that the team was unfairly biased towards
Palestinians because of the humanitarian focus of some of its members.
"It is in the interests of the Israeli government to have a UN fact finding
mission if, as they have claimed, they have nothing to hide," Samari told
IslamOnline, saying that people would only become more suspicious if no one was
allowed to investigate.
A senior State Department official speaking on condition of anonymity echoed
this sentiment, saying that the U.S. had always told Israel it was in Israel's
interests to allow a fact-finding mission to enter Jenin.
"We're still interested in trying to make sure there is an objective assessment
of the facts in Jenin," the official said. "We do think it's important for the
facts to come out."
He added, however, that the U.S. had no backup plans in case the UN mission was
canceled, as it has been now.
Samari said that the Amnesty delegation spoke with witnesses and relatives of
victims in Jenin who "explained to us the circumstances where they have lost
their loved ones."
"We had confirmation from the hospital that yes, there was denial of access to
medical assistance. We have also confirmation for what was always known - that
there was a denial of humanitarian assistance."
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed that he had not
found any evidence of a "massacre" in Jenin. Palestinians say that hundreds had
been massacred in that one camp alone, while Israelis denied the accusation,
claiming that only "dozens" had been killed, most of whom were resistance
fighters.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher reiterated the Secretary's position
Wednesday, saying that, "We don't have indications of that [a massacre] but as
the Secretary said, we do think it's important to determine the facts about the
recent events."
In reporting his own experience, Samari said that Amnesty never used the
word "massacre" because there is no international legal definition of the
word.
"People who would like to play with words here are trying to either exaggerate
the facts or deny the facts, and those are wrong," he said. "We are talking
about facts here. There were gross human rights violations, including war
crimes according to the Geneva Convention. What we know is that we have
evidence of gross human rights violations."
He said that only an international inquiry could determine the numbers
accurately.
Samari stressed, however, that Jenin was not the only place where human rights
violations occurred.
"There are also many other forgotten human rights violations elsewhere, in
Nablus, in Tulkarem. Yes, it was a scenery of devastation," he said.
"People are talking only about Jenin... yesterday there was an incursion in
Hebron," he said, adding that Amnesty already had a team of investigators there
as well.
"Thousands of people have been detained and don't have any contact with their
lawyers," he added, explaining that the Israeli army had acknowledged having
about 2,500 Palestinians under arbitrary detention.
"People are focused on Jenin events, but there are many other human rights
violations that are forgotten."
Samari told IslamOnline that the delegation also visited Israeli victims of
Palestinian attacks in Tel Aviv on Monday, saying that Amnesty "never made any
distinction between victims… There is no justification for killing of innocent
civilians, be they Palestinian or Israeli."
"We met with Israeli citizens, representatives of civil society, we heard how
the Israelis are living in fear and concern," he said.
"We also heard from the Palestinians, how they feel frustration and they feel
the impact of the occupation on them. We always had said and repeated that
there will be no military solution to this kind of conflict.
"But any sustainable peace should be built on respect of human rights of all,
and human rights must be the agenda."
