Human rights violations in Jenin?

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May 2002

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Human rights violations in Jenin?
Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan was "dismayed" by the Israeli Government's continuing refusal to cooperate with a UN fact-finding team, established by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, that had been scheduled to arrive in the Jenin refugee camp on Sunday, April 28.

"It is vital that the Israeli government allows the expert UN fact-finding team to commence its work, with full independence, without further delay," said Khan. "The three members are known for their expertise and independence. There should be no deal which undermines the search for truth."

"It is in Israel's interest that an authoritative investigation establishes what happened in Jenin. Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority must give the UN team their full cooperation, including in the interests of peace and security in the region." "It is the right of victims and their families to know the truth," Khan added.

Khan and other Amnesty International (AI) delegates, including a military advisor, have been visiting Israel and the Occupied Territories where they will be meeting with Palestinian and Israeli victims of human rights abuses, Members of the Knesset, and Palestinian and Israeli members of Amnesty International. The delegation is also meeting with human rights defenders who are continuing their work in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

Khan visited Jenin refugee camp on April 28 and said Amnesty International delegates had found credible evidence of grave breaches of international humanitarian law and violations of human rights during the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) incursion into the camp between April 3 through April 17. "There is an urgent need for a thorough, independent, and impartial investigation," she said.

Israeli officials have deined any wrongdoing during their recent military incursion into the camp, though Palestinian officials charge that a "massacre" took place in Jenin. According to the IDF, "no more than" seven civialians were killed during their effort to suppress Palestinian militants the IDF charges were operating out of Jenin.

AI officials report that for more than 10 days ambulances, medical, and humanitarian aid workers were blocked by the IDF from entering the camp while the dead and wounded remained in houses and on the streets. Part of the camp is now a vast compacted pile of rubble, more than 100 houses bulldozed, apparently, according to AI officials, after Palestinian armed groups had surrendered and ceased resistance.

"There is no conceivable military reason which would justify such devastation—it appears to be a clear breach of international humanitarian law," Khan charged.

"Victims of human rights abuses, Palestinians and Israelis, are entitled to justice. Establishing the truth is the first step to accountability and justice. Justice and respect for human rights, including the rule of law, are the cornerstones to any durable solution to the spiralling violence," said Khan.

AI delegates to the West Bank in April presented their preliminary findings during a press conference at the Foreign Press Association in London on April 22.

Delegates interviewed eyewitnesses and met government representatives, including from the Israeli Defence Forces. They visited Rumaneh village, Jenin city, Jenin City Hospital, and Jenin Refugee Camp.

"The evidence compiled indicates that serious breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed, including war crimes, but only an independent international commission of inquiry can establish the full facts and the scale of these violations," said Javier Zúñiga, Director of Regional Strategy of the organization's International Secretariat.

The delegation received credible evidence of serious violations including:

• Failure to give civilians warning or time to evacuate Jenin refugee camp before Apache helicopters launched their first attacks.
• Failure by the Israeli Defence Forces to protect the people of the refugee camp, who are "protected people" under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians Persons in Time of War.
• Allegations of extrajudicial executions.
• Failure, for 13 days, to allow humanitarian assistance to the people in the camp who were trapped in the rubble of demolished houses or running out of food and water.
• Denial of medical assistance to the wounded in the refugee camp and deliberate targeting of ambulances.
• Excessive use of lethal force and using civilians as a "human shield."
• Ill-treatment, including beatings and degrading treatment, of Palestinian detainees.
• Extensive damage to property with no apparent military necessity.

Commenting on his preliminary findings following the autopsies he carried out in Jenin Hospital, Professor Derrick Pounder said: "What was striking is what was absent. There were very few bodies in the hospital. There were also none who were seriously injured, only the 'walking wounded.' Thus, we have to ask: where are the bodies and where are the seriously injured?''

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