OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/UNITED NATIONS, 25 April — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday put his foot down and sent a fact-finding team to Geneva to get ready for a trip to the Middle East, despite last-minute Israeli objections. Israel said late Tuesday that the UN mission to find what exactly happened at the Jenin refugee camp should be delayed and expanded to include military and counterterrorism experts. A team of Israeli experts were on way to the United Nations to discuss the mission, which Israel felt was dominated by humanitarian officials. But UN officials said the delegation meeting them would not include Annan.
Annan has said he would consider adding members to the UN group, although he would not remove anyone now on the mission. But he said the team should be in the Middle East by Saturday.
“He feels it was his team to name,” UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. “The Israelis indicated to him in advance that they would cooperate with whatever team he named, and those are his people and that’s the end of the discussion.” The Jenin camp was the scene of eight days of intense shelling and shooting by Israeli troops. Palestinians said Israeli troops committed a massacre and that hundreds died.
Annan chose Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president and an experienced trouble-shooter in the Balkans and elsewhere, to lead the team. He is now in Geneva, where the group is assembling.
Also on the team are Cornelio Sommaruga, former Swiss president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Sadako Ogata of Japan, the former UN high commissioner for refugees. Retired US Army Gen. William Nash was appointed as military adviser and Peter Fitzgerald of Ireland as a police adviser. Israel wanted Nash to be a full member of the team and Ahtisaari said he considered both Nash and Fitzgerald to be full-fledged members of the group. Eckhard said another military adviser would probably be added at Nash’s request. Two more experts joined the UN group yesterday — Tyge Lehmann, a Danish international lawyer and human rights expert, and Helen Renta, a Finnish forensic medical specialist.
Israeli tanks and troops killed three Palestinians in raids on West Bank villages yesterday and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana held talks with Yasser Arafat in his besieged Ramallah headquarters after Israel reversed its earlier refusal to allow such a meeting.
Solana’s spokeswoman said after the 90-minute session they discussed the “humanitarian situation” of Palestinians and the three-week-old standoff at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators began a second day of talks in Bethlehem to try to resolve the fate of dozens of Palestinian fighters holed up in the shrine along with about 200 clerics, church workers and Palestinian police.
As anger at Israel’s policies crackled across the Arab world, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said “state terrorism” by Israel to crush legitimate Palestinian resistance would fuel an appetite for revenge. But Mubarak said his country, one of only two Arab states to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state, would stick to a path of moderation and caution in dealing with its neighbor.
Israeli troops killed three Palestinian boys near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim on Tuesday night. Relatives said they were 14-year-old classmates from Gaza City.
Palestinian security sources said Yaqoub Al-Sarayrah, a leader of Fatah, was one of two men killed in an Israeli raid on Bani Naim, near Hebron yesterday. They said four people had been wounded and 15 detained. Palestinian security sources said troops had raided three other villages around Hebron. Palestinian hospital officials in Jenin said Israeli troops had shot dead 13-year-old Majdi Haliliya and wounded four other villagers in Jaba’a.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that there was “no evidence” to back up claims that Israeli forces massacred civilians in Jenin. Powell told lawmakers on Capitol Hill it was necessary for a UN team to visit Jenin to find out exactly what occurred there. But he said Assistant Secretary of State William Burns spent three hours in Jenin earlier this week and saw “no evidence” of mass graves or widespread killing of civilians.
Powell said he was troubled by some aspects of a telethon held on Saudi television which raised $150 million for the Palestinians. He said some of the money could find its way into the coffers of Hamas. He added that he would bring up the issue during talks in Crawford, Texas today between President George W. Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard.
Khaled Al-Maeena reports from Houston: Speaking to the Saudi media on the eve of the talks, Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal said the period of Saudi-US relations has gone through various phases. However they have been marked by frankness.
Today’s meeting will be held in a frank manner too as both leaders are known not to mince words. The focus will be at the present situation in Palestine. On a bilateral level there are no major problems between the two countries, Prince Saud said.
Prince Saud believes that Sharon’s policies are an obstacle to peace. Yasser Arafat is the elected leader of the Palestinian people and as such is the person to negotiate with other parties.
“We need an end to occupation and give Palestinians their rights. We need to have an instrument to implement our vision of peace. Israel needs to know that Arabs want peace. Sharon has molded Israeli public opinion into a warlike posture,” he said.
The foreign minister said the Abdullah-Bush talks will focus on lifting the siege on Arafat and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied land.
Prince Saud said the Arabs have opted for peace as a strategic overture. The region needs development and any war will delay progress. All those who are for war will only help add chaos to the region. The crown prince felt that it was important to relay to the Americans the gravity of the situation, Prince Saud said and hoped that today’s meeting would produce the desired results.
