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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Israeli Defense Force admits to mass graves in Jenin |
Current rating: 0 |
by The Independent (UK; via Sascha)
(No verified email address) |
12 Apr 2002
Modified: 07:13:25 PM |
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Israel will bury Palestinians killed in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, the army said today, prompting Palestinian allegations that Israel had killed hundreds of civilians and was trying to hide the bodies. |
12 April 2002 20:00 GMT+1
Israel to bury dead from 'massacre' camp
12 April 2002
Israel will bury Palestinians killed in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, the army said today, prompting Palestinian allegations that Israel had killed hundreds of civilians and was trying to hide the bodies.
Army spokesman Brigadier General Ron Kitrey denied the Palestinian accusations of a cover–up, but said collection and burial of the bodies in Jenin would begin today.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refused to give US Secretary of State Colin Powell a deadline for the end of the offensive in the Palestinian terriroties.
He said at a joint news conference with General Powell after their much–awaited meeting: "Israel is conducting a war against the Palestinian infrastructure of terror and hopes to end it as soon as possible."
Gen. Powell said the United States understood Israel's need to defend itself, but added that "eventually the parties must talk, the parties must have negotiations." He said he did not come away from the meeting with a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal.
He is expected to meet Yasser Arafat tomorrow at his headquarters in Ramallah, where the Palestinian leader has been confined with aides to three rooms by Israeli forces who invaded the compound two weeks ago.
In Gaza City, an effigy of Gen. Powell was burned in an anti–U.S. protest by thousands of Palestinians.
Brig. Kitrey told Israel Army radio today that hundreds of Palestinians had been killed in Jenin. But the army subsequently contacted news organisations to say that he meant hundreds had been killed and wounded.
He said the bodies from the Jenin fighting would be buried at a special cemetery in the Jordan Valley where Lebanese fighters killed in cross–border clashes have been buried in unmarked graves.
"The terrorists we found with guns we are going to bury in what we call the enemy cemetery site," he told The Associated Press. "The civilians we will try to give back to the Palestinians."
He alleged Palestinian Red Crescent officials have rejected an Israeli offer to retrieve bodies from the camp. However, Dr. Hussam Sharkawi of the Red Crescent said that for several days the Israeli army has blocked his group from entering the camp.
"This is part of their disinformation campaign to hide something," Dr Sharkawi said.
The Red Cross also said it and other aid groups, including the Red Crescent, had been denied permission by Israel to enter the camp. The organization's communication coordinator, Alexandra Matijevic, said the Red Cross has been shut out of the camp for three days and has been unable to confirm conflicting casualty claims.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat repeated accusations the Israelis were trying to cover up the killing of civilians. "They want to hide their crimes, the bodies of the little children and women," he told The Associated Press.
Mr Erekat said that Gen. Powell should visit the Jenin camp and witness the "war crimes."
Though the army reported sporadic fighting in the Jenin area, the last significant pocket of gunmen surrendered to Israeli troops on Thursday.
Jenin effectively has been closed to journalists during most of the fighting, so allegations of massacres and mass burials could not be independently confirmed. Journalists who entered the camp briefly Thursday saw no bodies, and the army would not explain where they were. |
See also:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=284123
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More mass grave info from the BBC: |
by Sascha
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
12 Apr 2002
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1926000/1926194.stm
from the article:
...According to Palestinian sources, the IDF buried the bodies of dozens of Palestinians killed in fighting in a mass grave and used bulldozers to cover them up - again a charge vehemently denied by the Israeli army.
The IDF's official number for Palestinians killed in operations in Jenin is about 100, with hundreds injured.
'Propaganda purposes'
According to the Haaretz newspaper, military sources said two IDF infantry companies were scheduled to enter the camp on Friday to collect the dead...
...The IDF said that it had called on groups such as the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to clear the dead and take away the injured.
Israeli officials hinted that Palestinian medical workers did not want to remove the bodies because they believed scenes of the dead in the streets would help their cause.
This was denied by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which backs, trains and works very closely with the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Movement restricted
An ICRC official in Jerusalem said that its personnel have been just outside the Jenin refugee camp for three days.
On several occasions they have been given permission by the IDF to go into the camp, but when they tried to do so their way was blocked or they were stopped by heavy fighting.
Even in Jenin city, which has not been the scene of heavy fighting, ICRC ambulances - clearly marked - have come under fire from Israelis and had their movements restricted, officials say. |
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Supreme Court steps in after Israeli Arab petition |
by gehrig
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
12 Apr 2002
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This is from www.haaretzdaily.com, the English edition of Ha'aretz.
High Court orders IDF not to remove bodies from Jenin
By Amos Harel, Anat Cygielman and Jala Bana, Ha'aretz Correspondents
The High Court ordered the state and the Israel Defense Forces not to remove the bodies of Palestinians killed in the Jenin refugee camp until a hearing is held on the matter Sunday morning.
The order came in response to a petition from attorney Jamil Dakaur who represents the "Adala" organization.
A three-judge panel will discuss the issue Sunday morning.
The Court also ordered the State Prosecutor's Office to respond to charges that the IDF buried the bodies of Palestinians killed in the West Bank refugee camp in a huge mass grave, as Palestinian sources charged Thursday, and if so, why.
The sources said that the army used bulldozers to cover them up, Palestinian sources said yesterday.
The army vehemently denied the allegations.
The peitioners, which also included the "Kanon" non-profit organization, MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) and MK Ahmed Tibi (Ta'al-Arab Movement for Renewal), made the request after Ha'aretz reported that the IDF intended to bury those identified by the IDF as terrorists at a special cemetery for fallen enemy troops in the Jordan Valley.
The IDF said that the bodies of Palestinian civilians killed in the fighting would be taken to the hospital in Jenin and later buried.
According to Tibi, removing the bodies from the city is a violation of international law and is intended to hide the truth from the public about the killing that occured there.
Soldiers had been removing bodies since Thursday and plans were to continue to do so.
IDF chaplain says bodies can be removed on Sabbath
IDF Chaplain General, Major General Rabbi Israel Weiss ruled Friday that there was no religious reason to stop the removal of the bodies during the Sabbath. The military rabbinate deals with the removal of bodies after they are located. The army estimates that there are still 100 to 200 bodies in the camp.
The argument for Weiss's decision was that leaving the remains where they are poses a danger to IDF soldiers. Therefore, they can be removed even if it entails working on the Sabbath. Military sources said that the IDF had not begun any efforts to bury the bodies.
Two companies of Golani troops were performing a systematic search of the camp Friday afternoon in an attempt to find bodies and locate wanted Palestinians and weapons.
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Comment: So we've got (a) wide international attention, (b) direct High Court involvement, thanks to a petition from Israeli Arabs, and (c) a dapper dude named Colin Powell in the immediate neighborhood, who's about to have a new number one question at his next press conference.
The High Court is not an IDF rubber stamp by any means, as this ruling shows. The IDF's word alone will convince no one, and Palestinian claims that mass graves in Jenin already exist should be very easy to verify or disprove, if these are eyewitness statements. Unfortunately, sabbath just fell, so the three-judge panel won't be able to meet for another day.
Meanwhile, in light of another suicide bombing, it looks like Powell won't visit Arafat after all.
@%< |
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night |
by sarah
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
12 Apr 2002
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I just finished listening to "Night" by Elie Wiesel on audiotape. I am struck by similarities in the tactics between the Night and the BBC story. I know that the Latuff cartoon stirred up animosity, but the similarities are striking. People rounded up and disappearing. No one allowed in to see what is happening. Rumors of mass graves. Indiscriminate killing. I realize there are gross differences, but wow. The suicide bomber will probably be enough to scare Powell away from there for "security" reasons. We will find out the truth only years later as in Bosnia, Chile, Argentina, Cambodia, Germany and Poland, Rwanda, Brundi, and so on and on and on. |
