The Hindu : West Asia: U.N. team put on hold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 01, 2002

International

International

West Asia: U.N. team put on hold

By Kesava Menon

A Palestinian raises his hands as he walks out of the Church of the Nativity escorted by a monk in Bethlehem on Tuesday. A group of 27 people began filing out of the church in the largest such release since a four-week-old Israeli siege of the shrine began. — Reuters

Manama (Bahrain) April 30. Israel has said it will not allow the U.N. fact-finding team to visit the Jenin refugee camp till the world body accepts the conditions laid down by it.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of Israel's security cabinet today. It appears that the U.N. team, now in Geneva and with its size increased to nearly 20 members, will not visit Israel or the Palestinian territories until both sides agree to collaborate with it.

Israel has placed three or four conditions for extending co-operation to the fact-finding team. It insists that any Israeli who is questioned about the events that took place during the invasion of the refugee camp should be given immunity from prosecution. The demand for immunity apparently stems from the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan's statement that the actions of the Israeli army in Jenin will be studied in the context of international humanitarian laws.

Israel insists that apart from international humanitarian laws, the right of national self-defence and the war against terrorism should be used as yardsticks while judging its army's action in Jenin. The Israeli Government says it should be consulted before the fact-finding mission summons Israeli personnel or asks them to produce documents. It says the U.N. team should not have the right to subpoena anyone at will.

Israel may be stalling in the hope that the U.S. administration will step in and force the U.N. to back off. In fact, some Israeli analysts feel that Israel's acceptance of the U.S.-brokered deal, which is to bring an end to the siege of the Palestinian Authority president, Yasser Arafat, was a quid pro quo for U.S. efforts on its behalf in respect of the U.N. panel.

But Israel's Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, today said in a statement to Israel Radio that since it was the U.S. which mooted the fact-finding panel, it was unlikely that the administration would thwart the team's visit to Jenin.

However, according to some reports, Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is trying to put off the visit of the U.N. panel at least until after his trip to Washington next Wednesday.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

Stories in this Section

West Asia: U.N. team put on hold

Suu Kyi release on the cards?

U.S. launches anti-terror training in Georgia

Gujarat police directed mobs: report

Security tightened in Paris

Ranil seeks to allay Sinhalese fears

I will not step aside, says queen

E.U. diplomats call it `planned violence'

Case against Modi planned in U.K. court

Voting, Pak. style