DATE=10/10/00
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
NUMBER=2-267721
TITLE=U-N / MIDEAST (L ONLY)
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations Human Rights Commission has overwhelmingly approved a request by Arab countries to hold an emergency meeting to examine alleged violations by Israel in clashes with
Palestinian demonstrators. Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva.
TEXT: Forty-eight of the Commission's 53 member nations voted to hold the emergency meeting. The United States cast the sole dissenting vote and Canada abstained. Three other countries did not vote.
The special meeting will begin October 18th and will last for no more than three days.
U-N spokeswoman Marie Heuze says one purpose of the meeting is to try to learn how the cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians can be stopped.
/// HEUZE ACT ///
When you have such a high profile for a crisis which is so dangerous, not only for the people in Palestine and in Israel, but in the region, there is a fear -- and this is probably why there is a large consensus on this meeting to discuss the issue -- because the situation in this part of the world is so volatile, so dangerous, so important to control that everybody thinks that they have something to contribute.
/// END ACT ///
Ms. Heuze says she thinks the United Nations and the international community as a whole can play a constructive role in the present situation and in trying to get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Officials of the U-N Human Rights Commission will discuss the agenda for the meeting on Wednesday.
This is only the fifth time the commission has gone into emergency meeting to deal with a crisis situation. Previous sessions dealt with the Bosnian war, the genocide in Rwanda, and the violence in East Timor.
The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva calls the meeting inopportune and says it will not calm the situation. (Signed)
NEB/LS/JWH
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