Saturday, Apr 13, 2002
Saturday, Apr 13, 2002 |
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By Kesava Menon
Gen. Powell today met Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, and his Cabinet colleagues and was scheduled to meet the Palestinian Authority President, Yasser Arafat, for the start of what is likely to be a series of discussions to restore some semblance of normality in the territories. A major controversy appears to be emerging over the death toll in Jenin but the need for normalcy is so pressing that this controversy does not as yet threaten to derail the Powell mission. Neither the Israeli nor the U.S. side had much to say after the meetings in the earlier part of the day. In any case, the substantive talks will only commence tomorrow after Gen. Powell meet Mr. Arafat and the starting points are defined. The sequencing of cease-fire declarations and measures, the synchronisation of talks on a cease-fire and on substantive issues and the matching of an Israeli troop re-deployment with increased security cover by Palestinian police or international peace observers have to be worked out in the talks. For the moment, the Israelis have refused to end their operations and the Palestinians say that they will not declare a cease-fire so long as Israeli troops are entrenched within their territories. As regards Jenin, both sides agree that casualties among the Palestinians have been heavy. The Palestinian official, Saeb Erekat, has claimed that there was a massacre in Jenin and that the death toll could be close to 500 with most being civilians. Israelis say the figure is closer to 100 for the Palestinian dead and that most were combatants. Those who have left the Jenin refugee camp and spoken to the media talk of hundreds dead, of bodies buried under the rubble, of executions of Palestinian combatants after their surrender and of secret mass burials. But the media and international aid agencies are still not able to enter the refugee camp and there is no independent verification of either claim. There have been stories in the Israeli press, perhaps inspired by their military, to the effect that Palestinian civilians were indeed killed because they were being used as human shields by their combatants. Since the men in the refugee camps presumably had their families with them it is a little difficult to believe that they would have used their own families as shields.
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