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| Middle East |
| Kofi appoints fact-finding team for Jenin |
| 2002-04-22 |
| UN Secretary General Kofi Annan named three eminent persons to uncover the facts of the Israeli army's assault on the Jenin refugee camp and said Israel had promised to cooperate with them. "In my discussions with senior Israeli officials, who say they have nothing to hide, I have been given an assurance that the team will have access to everyone they want to see," Annan told a news conference. Finland's former president Martti Ahtisaari, who will head the fact-finding team, said: "Hopefully we will be on the spot sometime in the latter part of this week." He said it was too early to say how long it would take to "develop accurate information regarding recent events in Jenin" -- words used in a UN Security Council resolution on Friday welcoming Annan's decision to set up the team. The United States agreed to support the resolution on condition the team would report to Annan and not act under a mandate from the council, which Israel regards as biased against it. The observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Nasser Al-Kidwa, repeated the charge of massacre, saying that what happened was worse than a war crime. He welcomed the formation of the team, which includes Sadako Ogata of Japan, a former UN high commissioner for refugees, and Cornelio Sammaruga, the Swiss former head of the International Committee of the Red Cross. "They are people of high integrity and credibility," Al-Kidwa said, but he added that the Israelis could be expected to obstruct their work. A retired US general, William Nash, will act as military adviser and a senior Irish police officer, Peter Fitzgerald, as police adviser. Pretty neutral on its face... Except that it's stacked with former heads of ICRC and the UNHCR. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |