-Caveat Lector- http://www.bahraintribune.com/middle.asp?Art_No=9434
The Bahrain Tribune November, 2, 2002 Palestinians slam rights group report on bombings OCCUPIED JERUSALEM -- The Palestinian leadership hit back yesterday at a report by a leading international rights watchdog that denounced suicide bombers as war criminals and said the Palestinian Authority (PA) bore heavy responbility for not stopping them. A top advisor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemned the report by the US-based Human Rights Watch, arguing that Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was behind suicide bombings. "We strongly criticise the report's content, especially those passages that say the president (Arafat) and the PA bear the responsibility, for suicide attacks," Nabil Abu Rudeina said. Abu Rudeina stressed that "the occupation is entirely responsible for everything that occurs and it must be ended." "We demand that Human Rights Watch also criticise the occupation, which leads to those (suicide) operations and criticise the Jenin and Rafah massacres caused by that very occupation," he also said. He was referring to Israeli incursions and strikes that have left scores of Palestinians dead, many of them civilians. Palestinian resistance groups singled out in the report, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, also slammed the rights watchdog. HRW's "way of thinking is Zionist and one-sided," charged Islamic Jihad official Mohammed Al Hindi. "The report speaks the same language as (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and the Israeli extremists," he said. A top Hamas spokesman described the report as "exactly biased toward the Zionist enemy." "It omits every crime committed by Israel" against the Palestinians, said Abdelaziz Rantissi, adding that he saw "a suspect Zionist hand" in this report. In the harrowing report, entitled "Erased in a Moment," Human Rights Watch said there were "important steps that Arafat and the PA could and should have taken to prevent or deter suicide bombings against civilians. "The failure to take those steps implies a high degree of responsibility for what occurred," it added. The report details the deaths of 415 Israeli and other civilians, and the wounding of 2,000 more up until August 2002 in Palestinian attacks. More than 250 of those dead were killed in suicide bombings. An up-to-date death toll puts the total number of casualties on the Israeli side at 637 people. Some 1,949 Palestinians have also died since the beginning of the 25-month uprising. Human Rights Watch has also been sharply critical of Israel's military tactics. It released a report in May 2002 that charged Israel had committed war crimes during its invasion of the West Bank town of Jenin in April. Another renowned rights group, British-based Amnesty International, is scheduled to release a report on Monday that also claims Israel committed war crimes during its six-week Operation Defensive Shield on the West Bank last spring. -- AFP <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http://archive.jab.org/ctrl@;listserv.aol.com/ <A HREF="http://archive.jab.org/ctrl@;listserv.aol.com/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
