From: "Roger ROMAIN" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.jordantimes.com/Fri/news/news2.htm August 31, 2001 Israeli soldiers threaten to shoot UNRWA boss RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli occupation soldiers in a tank on Thursday blocked the path of a UN convoy and told a UN agency chief who got out of his car and asked to speak to an officer that he would be shot at if he did not move back. Peter Hansen, the commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), wore a light blue bulletproof vest with large UN insignia and stood about 30 metres from the tank when the incident took place. At one point, the tank turned its cannon toward him, and another tank moved closer to the convoy. After a standoff of about 20 minutes, the UN officials and journalists accompanying them turned back, and took dirt roads to reach the Rafah refugee camp where a day earlier Israeli bulldozers had levelled 14 homes. The army said the UN agency had not coordinated the trip with the army. It said the soldiers in the tank notified a commander of the UN presence and that eventually permission was granted for the convoy to pass. By that time, the UN vehicles had already left, the army said. The incident began when five vehicles - flying the blue UN flag and marked with the world body's symbol on their sides - came to a halt about 100 metres from two tanks parked across the main access road to Rafah. Hansen put on a blue bulletproof vest and walked toward the tanks a few steps. "Go back immediately or we are going to shoot," a soldier yelled in in English from a tank toward Hansen. Hansen walked toward the tanks a few more steps, shouting "We want to go through." He later asked "Can you send an officer?" but no reply came from the tanks. Soldiers are under strict orders not to get out of the tanks for security reasons, the army said. Palestinian resistance fighters carry out almost daily attacks along roads used by the occupation army in the Gaza Strip. Hansen stood several minutes looking at the tanks. After a few minutes, one tank moved off the road and pulled up alongside the other to face the convoy. "I think they are just trying to scare me," Hansen told journalists travelling with him. "This is regrettable and I'm very disappointed. I must insist to the Israeli authorities that we have a right to operate here." Issa Kara, a spokesman for the United Nations, said that UNRWA officials have freedom of movement according to agreements with Israel. The Israeli army action created "an obstacle" for Hansen who was trying to fulfill his duties, Kara said. Hansen's convoy was on its way to Rafah to visit refugees whose homes had recently been destroyed by the Israeli army. The army charged the buildings had been used by Palestinian gunmen to attack troops. UNRWA was established to care for refugees from the 1948-49 war that followed the creation of the state of Israel on their land. About 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of their homes as Israel fought five defending Arab armies. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
