UNITED NATIONS - With an Israeli green light, the U.N. Security Council has given its unanimous backing to a U.N. fact-finding team that will visit the Jenin refugee camp to determine what happened during Israel's military assault.
Arab nations have accused Israel of a massacre of civilians in the West Bank camp but Israel says the deaths and destruction resulted from fierce gunbattles between its soldiers and Palestinian gunmen.
The council voted 15-0 Friday night, hours after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Secretary-General Kofi Annan that it would welcome a U.N. representative ``to clarify the facts'' of what happened in the Jenin refugee camp.
``Israel has nothing to hide regarding the operation in Jenin,'' Peres told Annan, according to Israel's U.N. Mission. ``Our hands are clean.''
Peres emphasized that Israel ``will fully cooperate'' with the fact-finders and ``that representatives will not be prevented from visiting the place and speaking to its residents.''
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, who initially opposed any resolution, said ``It's important to have the facts of what has happened in Jenin.''
In Washington, presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush ``supports an investigation. And the United Nations is doing it."
In his phone call to Annan, Peres only mentioned a mission to the city of Jenin, but ``the secretary-general would hope that any fact-finding mission he sends would have full access to all areas of the West Bank,'' U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
Arab nations had pushed for a vote on a resolution expressing shock at reports of a massacre at Jenin and requesting that Annan investigate ``the full scope of the tragic events'' there. The United States had threatened to veto it, and the final resolution made no mention of a massacre.
The resolution did not say when the team would leave or complete its mission.
Negroponte said Annan would work out the details, including selection of the fact finders.
The resolution ``welcomes the initiative of the secretary-general to develop accurate information regarding recent events in the Jenin refugee camp through a fact-finding team and requests him to keep the Security Council informed.''
It expresses concern at ``the dire humanitarian situation'' of Palestinian civilians and ``emphasizes the urgency of access of medical and humanitarian organizations to the Palestinian civilian population.''
It also reaffirms previous Mideast resolutions demanding an immediate Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian cities and outlining a blueprint to end more than 18 months of violence and achieve a final peace settlement ending with a Palestinian state.
Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. envoy, said international momentum had built to establish some way ``to inquire (into) or to investigate what happened in Jenin.''
``We believe that a serious war crime was committed ... and thus we believe that some people will have to be held responsible and brought to justice,'' Al-Kidwa said.
Israel's deputy U.N. ambassador Aaron Jacob said Israel was forced to enter Palestinian cities ``to uproot the infrastructure of terror'' and denied there had been a massacre.
Jacob said Israel would cooperate with ``any nonpolitical and impartial'' inquiry, but, ``We believe that the facts regarding what has happened in Jenin could be clarified without such a resolution.''
Friday
May 9th, 2025
10:46PM
