[IAP NEWS] Amnesty International urges investigation of Ariel Sharon (fwd)

[!Dr. Joe Baptista]

http://www.web.amnesty.org/web/news.nsf/WebAll/A13E3C3399DC3A3A80256AD90057029E?OpenDocument

TEXT:

Assalamu'alaikum

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Latest Press Release

Amnesty International urges investigation of Ariel Sharon

Publish date: 03/10/2001

A court in Brussels will today (3 October 2001) begin to
consider arguments about whether Israel's Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon may be investigated in Belgium for alleged
war crimes committed in Lebanon in 1982 while he was
Israel's Minister of Defence.

"Amnesty International welcomes actions taken in
accordance with international law to combat impunity,"
said the organization. "We support the judicial
investigation into Ariel Sharon's responsibility with
regard to the Sabra and Shatila massacre." 

The complaint against Sharon was first lodged with the
Belgian Public Prosecutor's Office in June 2001. Ariel
Sharon was Minister of Defence, with overall
responsibility for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), at
the time of the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in Sabra and
Shatila refugee camps on the outskirts of Beirut. The IDF
allowed the Lebanese Phalange militia to enter the camps
where the killing of hundreds, mostly Palestinian
refugees, continued for at least 30 hours. The
complainants, a group of 23 Lebanese and Palestinians, had
filed the case under Belgian legislation enacted in 1993
and 1999 which allows Belgian courts to prosecute
foreigners for certain offences committed abroad,
including genocide, war crimes and crimes against
humanity. However, the resulting investigation was
suspended by the investigating magistrate in early
September 2001 until doubts about the legal validity of
the procedure were resolved. 

Amnesty International calls on states to ensure prompt,
thorough and independent investigations wherever
allegations of crimes under international law are made. If
such an investigation shows there is enough evidence for a
prosecution, then, in accordance with international law
which allows the national courts of any state to try
people accused of such crimes, regardless of the
nationality of the alleged perpetrators or victims and
regardless of where the crimes were committed, Amnesty
International calls on states to bring the accused to
trial or extradite them to another country for trial,
provided certain safeguards are met. No one may be
extradited to a country which cannot assure that any trial
on such charges meets international standards for fairness
and does not result in the imposition of the death penalty
or other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. 

The lawyer representing Israel argued that Belgium lacks
the legal authority to try Ariel Sharon on charges
relating to the 1982 massacre. Among her arguments the
lawyer stated that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has
immunity as a head of government; the case had already
been considered in Israel by the Kahan Commission of
Inquiry, which was a judicial commission; the 1993 law
cannot be used retroactively; and the case has no
connection with Belgium. A Brussels public prosecutor
rejected the defence arguments and said that the case
should go ahead. The court hearing due to start on 3
October will rule on the legality of the proceedings
against Ariel Sharon in Belgium, not on the content of the
case against him.

Amnesty International has welcomed Belgium's universal
jurisdiction laws and the 27 August 2001 statements
attributed to Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
voicing support for the legislation and suggesting that it
be extended to the entire European Union.

The first case involving the exercise of universal
jurisdiction to come to trial in Belgium resulted in the
conviction in June 2001 of four Rwandan nationals for war
crimes committed in 1994. Amnesty International welcomed
this judgement as a significant step forward in the use of
universal jurisdiction, an essential tool in the struggle
against impunity.

A number of criminal complaints have been lodged with the
Belgian courts against leaders and prominent members of
past and present governments. In addition to Ariel Sharon,
these have included: former Chilean President General
Augusto Pinochet; former Speaker of Parliament and
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hojjatoleslam
Ali Akbar Rafsanjani; former Moroccan Minister of Interior
Driss Basri; former Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia
Ndombasi and several other government ministers of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo;  President Paul Kagame
of Rwanda; former President Hissene Habre of Chad; and
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

Background

The principle of universal jurisdiction permits the
national courts of any state to try people accused of
crimes under international law, including war crimes,
crimes against humanity, and genocide as well as torture,
extrajudicial executions and "disappearances," regardless
of the nationality of the alleged perpetrators or victims
and regardless of where the crimes were committed.

In 1983 the official Israeli Commission of Inquiry into
the Events at the Refugee Camps in Beirut concluded that
Minister of Defence Ariel Sharon had "disregarded the
danger of acts of vengeance and bloodshed by
Phalangists...  failed to take this danger into account
when he decided to have the Phalangists enter the
camps...[and had not ordered] appropriate measures for
preventing or reducing the danger of massacre as a
condition for the Phalangists' entry into the camps." The
commission recommended that "the Minister of Defence draw
the appropriate personal conclusions arising out of the
defects revealed with regard to the manner in which he
discharged the duties of his office." Ariel Sharon
resigned from his position as Minister of Defence
following publication of the Commission's report in 1983.
In February 2001 Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister
of Israel; he took office in March.

****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty International's
press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW web :
http://www.amnesty.org 


-- 
Joe Baptista

http://www.dot-god.com/