Amid mounting charges by human rights groups of abuses by Israeli troops, U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson plans to start a Middle East fact-finding mission as early as Tuesday evening or Wednesday, her spokeswoman said Monday. The mission, which is pending Israeli approval, includes former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez and South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, a former leader of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. The mission's mandate includes reporting on suicide bombings, and it will also examine human rights in the West Bank, which is currently under assault by Israeli troops.
U.N. officials on Monday described a situation of "pure horror" in northern West Bank camps, with strafing from Israeli helicopters, corpses piling up and ambulances and food trucks being barred by the army. "There is a humanitarian disaster in the making," says Richard Cook, West Bank field director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Mary spends so much time wringing her hands she's gonna get callouses. Those humanitarian disasters are hell, but so's war and so's exploding snuffies. And let us not forget the Brutal Palestinian Winter, which is only nine months away...Maybe Mary could check on the camps in the neighboring Arab countries to see how the human rights situation is there.
Posted by Annoying Old Guy 4/9/2002 4:45:33 PM 
|
