From: Mermaid . (britannica@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Aug 04 2002 - 01:11:07 MDT
This just in (not really..its dated aug 2)from Human Rights Watch. I am
surprised that this didnt hit the airwaves or print media...or did it?
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/08/jenin080202.htm
U.N. Jenin Report "Flawed"
(New York, August 2, 2002) The U.N. report on events in Jenin is seriously
flawed, Human Rights Watch said today. The report, mandated by a U.N.
General Assembly resolution after Israeli objections forced the
Secretary-General to disband a U.N. fact-finding team, largely limits itself
to presenting competing accounts of the events during the Israeli military
operations.
"The report doesn't move us forward in terms of establishing the truth,"
said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa
Division of Human Rights Watch. "Its watered-down account of the very
serious violations in Jenin exposes the risk of compiling a report without
any first-hand information."
While the report describes some general allegations that have been made
about the conduct of the Israeli and Palestinian sides during the Israeli
operation, it draws almost no conclusions on the merits of those claims. It
makes only limited reference to the obligations of the parties under
international law, makes few clear conclusions about violations of that law,
and does not raise the issue of accountability for serious violations that
may have been committed, some of which rise to the level of war crimes. Its
information and analysis are strongest when dealing with the blockage of
humanitarian and medical access to the camp.
Human Rights Watch said part of the report's problems stems from the terms
of its mandate. Set up by a U.N. General Assembly resolution after the
Secretary-General was forced by Israel's objections to disband a U.N.
fact-finding mission, the report was collated from existing sources. The
report was hampered still further when the government of Israel did not
comply with the United Nation's request for information.
"Even with what they had, they could have done more," Megally said.
Examples of the report's failings include the following:
It refers to the fact that civilians died in the operation, without
examining the circumstances of their deaths. It makes no mention of the
strong evidence suggesting that some were willfully killed, such as Jamal
Fayid, a 37-year old paralyzed man, who was crushed in the rubble of his
home on April 7 after Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers refused to allow
his family time to remove him from their home before a bulldozer destroyed
it.
The U.N. report mentions that missiles were "at times" fired from
helicopters, minimizing evidence suggesting that their use was intense and
indiscriminate in Jenin camp, particularly on April 6 when missiles caught
many sleeping civilians.
In its section dealing with abuses outside Jenin, the report fails to
consider the systematic targeting of the offices of Palestinian media
organizations, as well as the serious impediments faced by international
journalists and human rights monitors attempting to document events.
It does not discuss what, if any, steps the parties have taken to
investigate credible allegations of violations of international humanitarian
law raised in the report-vital for ensuring accountability and discouraging
future violations.
Human Rights Watch researchers spent three weeks on the ground, including in
Jenin camp, immediately following the operation. Researchers gathered
detailed accounts from victims and witnesses, carefully corroborating and
independently crosschecking their accounts with those of others to
reconstruct a detailed picture of events in the camp in April 2002. The
findings were published in a 52-page report, "Jenin: IDF Military
Operations." In early May, the Israel Defense Forces made a commitment to
investigate every incident documented in the report. To date, Human Rights
Watch has had no response from the IDF as to the progress of any such
investigations.
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