| From: | "Irina Malenko" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> |
| Subject: | on Sharon (from AP.RN) |
| Date: | Wed, 10 Jul 2002 19:57:18 +0100 |
Sharon off the hook for war crimes Only a few hours after G.W. Bush's recent speech effectively sanctioning the reoccupation of the Territories, the Belgian Court of Appeal called a halt to the trial against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a "man of peace" in Bush's own words. Sharon is accused of war crimes for his responsibilities in the Sabra and Chatila massacre (16-18 September 1982) in which scores of Palestinian refugees were slaughtered (800 according to the Israelis, 4,000 for the Palestinians), carried out by the Israeli proxi militia of the Christian Falangists. It took the Belgian court a full eight months to discover and come up legal cavil (the non-presence of the accused in Belgium) capable of preventing the Israeli prime minister's indictment. In 1982, Ariel Sharon was Minister for Defence, the true architect of the invasion of Lebanon (30,000 deaths) and the person ultimatly responsible for the dispatch of the Falangist militia (Israel's ally) into Sabra and Chatila, to "cleanse them of terrorists". The decision of the Belgian court is a heavy blow for the law, passed in 1993 and amended in 1999, governing universal jurisdiction in matters of war crimes and crimes against humanity. For the moment, Sharon would have been able to avail of his parliamentary immunity, but this would not apply to his generals, above all to Amos Yaron, the present Israeli Defence ministry coordinator and the then commander of Israeli troops in Beirut. "The course of justice has been brutally interrupted," says Kibli Mallat, one of the lawyers representing the 23 parents of the victims and the survivors who brought the charges against Sharon. "However, our efforts to challenge Sharon's war crimes impunity will continue in Belgium and elsewhere. This decision of the court represents a mere setback for both international humanitarian legislation itself, and for victims all over the world seeking justice in the presence of mass massacres." It is a step that should be taken not only for respect of all those killed in the summer of 1982, but also because the incrimination of Sharon would make a considerable contribution toward deterring the spread of Israeli war crimes, such as those committed in the West Bank city of Jenin only last April. The international community can no longer close its eyes to Israel state terrorism which, most likely, eliminated Elie Hobelka, the Sabra and Chatila henchman, who was ready to testify against Sharon. In fact, had Hobelka entered Belgium, the Court of Appeal, in the presence of one of the accused on Belgian soil could not have disclaimed a connection between the case in question and Belgium. Therefore, in the case of the Israeli premier, at least for the moment, crime seems to be paying. "They came from the mountains in thirty huge trucks", recalls Hasan, one of the survivors, in Amnoun Kabliyouk's book 'Sabra and Chatila: The Investigation of a Massacre'. "At first they started killing people with knives so that they wouldn't make any noise. Then they put snipers in the Chatila camp to kill anybody who crossed the streets. Next, armed men began going into the houses murdering men, women and children. At the end they blew up the houses with people in them, burying bodies under piles of rubble." The Israeli parlament was forced to investigate Sharon's involvement into the atrocity and although he was found responsible for the actions of the Lebanese Falangists and was forced to resign from his post, he was never charged and never appeared in a court of justice. The Israeli Supreme Court instead, found Sharon guilty of lying to his then Premier Begin about the war in Lebanon and was declared unfit to command the army.
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