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4/25/2002 (21:29) |
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Israel sets terms for UN Jenin mission
By a Staff Writer
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 26 April — Israel seeks assurances that a UN fact-finding mission into the carnage at the Jenin refugee camp will draw no conclusions and incriminate no Israeli witness, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday.
In an interview with Israeli Army radio, Peres said Israel was ready to cooperate fully with the UN panel but did not specify whether its assistance depended on compliance with its conditions.
Israel on Tuesday abruptly withdrew its approval for the mission to look into the circumstances surrounding nine days of bloodshed at the West Bank camp, fearing it was headed for public-relations and legal problems.
Peres said the Israelis, who sent a team of negotiators to New York to hash out the terms of the fact-finding mission, were pressing for “clarification” of three main points.
“We want assurances that the testimony of Israelis cannot be used against them, that the mission will include an anti-terrorism expert and that this mission will draw no conclusions,” the chief Israeli diplomat said. He added that in no case “can Israel be prosecuted before the International Court of Justice at the Hague.”
The three-member UN panel was to gather information on events at the camp that Palestinians say was the site of a massacre. The Palestinians say that hundreds were killed, mainly civilians in the Israeli onslaught.
Israel fears that the UN fact finders will focus on the destruction at Jenin and ignore the wider context of the Jewish state’s fears the camp had become a haven for “militants”. Peres said the UN mission headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari would arrive later this week and “should have our total cooperation.” But he did not say what would happen if Israel did not receive its “clarifications.”
“Israel must go on the attack to counter a campaign of defamation against us,” he said. The minister said the initial announcement Israel had suspended its cooperation with the UN panel was made “hastily, based on false information about the mission’s mandate conveyed to the prime minister’s office.”
The United Nations meanwhile announced yesterday that two military staff officers would be added to the fact-finding team.
Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard said Annan spoke by video conference yesterday to the team members, led by the former Finnish president, who were in Geneva making final preparations for their mission.
It was decided that retired US Gen. William Nash, the team’s military adviser, “will be assisted by two general staff officers and more experts will be brought on board as needed,” Eckhard said. He said he could not identify the officers.
Israeli troops, continuing their killing spree, shot dead at least seven Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in violence that coincided with intensive diplomacy aimed at calming the conflict.
Israeli tanks and troops swept into the divided West Bank city of Hebron overnight, killing a Palestinian security man and wounding at least four people, before withdrawing hours later, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said.
In the Gaza Strip, troops killed four Palestinians.
A Palestinian security spokesman said a policeman was killed and two wounded when their post was hit by machine gun fire from three Israeli tanks that had thrust into the nearby town of Deir Al-Balah. Another Palestinian man was shot dead at an Israeli checkpoint.
In Tel Aviv, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, held talks with Sharon, a day after seeing Arafat and voicing shock at conditions in the Ramallah compound. The foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey met Arafat at his battered compound yesterday.
In Oslo, international donors meeting yesterday pledged 1.2 billion dollars in aid for the Palestinians following the massive Israeli assault on the West Bank.
They agreed to grant $300 million in emergency relief to cover the most urgent humanitarian needs on the West Bank, plus $900 million to help the Palestinians rebuild infrastructure shattered during the offensive.
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