topic by
Human Rights Watch
4/28/2002 (19:17) |
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As a UN fact-finding mission prepares to investigate allegations of a massacre in Jenin, most aid workers in the city say that they have come to one major conclusion - though massive destruction took place in the refugee camp, there was clearly no massacre.
Aid workers and local doctors have found 52 corpses so far. The workers believe that 21 of them were civilians, including four women, two 14 year old boys, two invalids, and two or three elderly men.
'The majority of those killed,' said Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher at US-based Human Rights Watch posted to Jenin, 'were killed by snipers. Only one man, that we know of, was crushed in his home by a bulldozer.' Bouckaert, whose group has worked closely with medical teams at Jenin Hospital, believes that very few corpses remain buried beneath the tons of rubble. The area of the worst destruction has come to be known among foreign rescue workers, Palestinians, and IDF soldiers alike, as 'Ground Zero.' Bouckaert was almost certain, he told The Jerusalem Post, that the death toll will not rise beyond 80.
'There is simply no evidence of a massacre. But we are worried that Israel will use this fact to whitewash the enormous amount of damage done to the civilian sector.' There is still no electricity in the camp, burst water pipes have flooded low lying areas, and the camp's two schools remain closed.
Posters of 'martyrs' and Hamas and Islamic Jihad flags are again in evidence on the few structures left standing at 'Ground Zero.' Aid groups, including UNWRA, B'Tselem, LAW, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch are still tallying lists of dead, injured, and displaced, as well as the number of houses destroyed, rendered unlivable, or simply damaged.
Nearly every building in the refugee camp, and many in Jenin city itself, were damaged in the fierce two-week battle waged in the town. The IDF estimates that about 10 percent of the structures in the camp were destroyed, while Jenin Governor Zuneir Munasra said about 40% of the camp's buildings were destroyed and another 20% rendered unlivable.
The Jenin Governorate and other Palestinian Authority bodies have halted the removal of debris ahead of today's arrival of the UN commission headed by headed by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, despite the desire of UNWRA and other aid organizations to restore the camp to normal
Also hindering search and rescue work, says UNWRA Deputy Director Charles Capes, is the large number of unexploded ordinance lying about the camp. Last week British and Norwegian sappers remove some of the booby traps, but they returned home leaving most of the job undone. A French Civil Guard rescue team began Friday to mark and isolate buildings or areas believed to be unsafe.
Capes said Palestinian gunmen planted many of the booby traps while other ordinance had been left behind by IDF. Since April 19 one person has been killed and at least 12 were wounded by unexploded ordinance in the camp.
Capes said that as many as 3,500 people have been left without shelter. Munasra told the Post that many of them refuse to use the some 800 tents and other equipment sent by US Agency for International Development because they believe the US was 'complicit in the attack on their camp.'
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