The stalling of UN investigation into what really happened in the Jenin camp is deplorable. However, the blame for this mess unfortunately lies very largely with the United Nations and its Secretary-General Kofi Annan. There has been a serious lack of judgment in New York. It should have been clear to the secretary-general and his aides that whatever personnel were selected to make up the UN Jenin enquiry team would be open to immediate and minute scrutiny by the Israelis and their American allies. The team not only had to be seen to be totally unbiased but also to be thoroughly competent at assessing what happened during the Israeli aggression.
Unfortunately, by omitting anyone able to take an expert view on the military aspect of the fighting, the UN immediately created a hostage to fortune. This carelessness has already had serious consequences in that the UN has been obliged to back down and review the composition of the team. The operation has therefore been compromised from the start. Arab public opinion is rightly going to be leery of any report produced by an investigation team whose membership has effectively been vetted by the Israelis, the very people who stand accused of atrocities.
The debacle over the Jenin team does mean, however, that the UN is going to have to work much harder to restore the reputation of the investigating team. No further accommodation with the Israelis must be made. That means that no further excuse should be given to the Sharon government to keep the investigators away. In addition, it must be hoped that the secretary-general is also preparing a fallback position if Sharon still seeks to keep the reconstituted investigation away from the camp. The United States only agreed to the Jenin investigation after much soul searching. If the Israelis openly seek to flout the will of the Security Council by finding further excuses to bar the enquiry, then radical action must be taken. However, Sharon would be counting upon the final support of the Bush White House to veto any serious punishment. Nevertheless, President Bush would find it hard to support Sharon, if there could be no shadow of a doubt about the composition, competence and absolute independence of the Jenin investigation.
Meanwhile, the delay occasioned by the UN’s serious error is allowing the Israelis to continue to manipulate the evidence. There are already powerful briefings from Israeli officials that far from the hundreds of casualties reported by the Palestinians, the number of dead may be only 40 or 50. Israeli military commentators are meanwhile saying that their operation was designed to avoid civilian casualties. One officer said that had they carried out a classic military operation, they would have first shelled and bombed Jenin before they sent in ground troops. Instead, by sending in their soldiers straight away they had taken 28 dead and seventy wounded. This, of course, is to ignore the fact that the Israelis advanced with tank shells, flame throwers, stun grenades, machine guns, mortars, grenades, smoke and CS gas against a largely civilian population protected by fighters with only hand guns and explosives.
The UN investigation into Jenin now needs to happen quickly, before the truth is further concealed in the fog of war.
