STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- from HA'ARETZ English Edition Monday, June 18, 2001 Sharon 'indictable' for war crimes, BBC is told By Sharon Sadeh, Ha'aretz Correspondent LONDON - Most experts on international law interviewed by the BBC on its Panorama program yesterday believe that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could be indicted for the massacre of some 800 civilians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila by the Christian Phalange during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. In the program, broadcast last night and titled "Panorama - The Accused", the BBC also interviewed survivors of the massacre, Israeli officers who served in Beirut and members of the Christian Phalange, including Elie Hobeikeh, the man accused of leading the militiamen in the camps. The BBC noted that Sharon was asked for an interview, and his spokesman Ra'anan Gissin was interviewed on his behalf. Sharon's lawyer, Dov Weisglass, was also interviewed. Professor Richard Falk, professor of international law at Princeton University, said that "there is no question in my mind that he [Sharon] is indictable for the knowledge he had or should have had ... Sharon's specific command responsibility arises from the fact that it was he that gave the directions and orders that resulted in the Phalange entering the camp in September, 1982." In response to a question whether Sharon "could have been in any doubt about what would happen if you sent the Phalangists into an undefended Palestinian refugee camp," Morris Draper, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East in 1982, said: "You'd have to be appallingly ignorant ... I suppose if you came down from the moon that day, you might not have predicted it." "We were under the misguided belief ... We thought that after training them [the Phalanges] ... they would follow orders," Ra'anan Gissin said. Jerusalem is angry about the timing of the program's broadcast, and says that the producers got Sharon's spokesmen to cooperate without telling them what the program was really about. According to diplomatic sources, the BBC said this was a program about the massacre, but did not state that the focus would be whether Sharon was indictable. Had this been known, Gissin would not have provided the interview, the sources said, because he is not the right man for this task. Israel cautioned the BBC that it reserves the right to take legal measures against it if the program is found to be defamatory. _________________________________ (c) 2001 Ha'aretz English Edition http://www.haaretz.co.il/eng __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Spot the hottest trends in music, movies, and more. http://buzz.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
