From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Sun Aug 04 2002 - 11:14:19 MDT
On 4 Aug 2002 at 0:11, Mermaid . wrote:
Of course this rises to the level of religio-political dogma with some:
there MUST have been a massacre in Jenin, I intensely feel it in my
bones, WHEN/WHEREVER Israel launches an incursion, a massacre
occurs, it MUST occur, its just GOTTA BE that way, so any report that
disagrees MUST be flawed. I got an idea! Let's go ahead anf
investigate, so we can report that the other heretical report IS flawed,
and that a massacre DID occur, as MUST be the case!
> 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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