Military

DATE=10/24/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N / ROBINSON / MIDDLE EAST (L-only)

NUMBER=2-268385

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The United Nations' top human-rights official, Mary Robinson, says she would like to visit Israel when she goes to the region to investigate claims of human-rights violations against Palestinian civilians. Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva.

TEXT: Mary Robinson is going to the Palestinian territories as part of a U-N inquiry into human-rights abuses allegedly committed by Israeli forces in their clashes with Palestinian protesters. About 130 people have died in the violence of the past weeks, almost all of them Palestinians.

Last week, the U-N Human Rights Commission held an emergency session on Palestine. The commission adopted a resolution condemning Israel for violating the human rights of Palestinian people. It also requested that Mary Robinson visit the Palestinian territories to investigate allegations of abuse. The Israeli government has said it will not cooperate in the investigation.

The U-N Economic and Social Council will meet on an urgent basis in mid-November in New York to endorse the resolution. Ms. Robinson's spokesman, Jose Dias, says he expects Ms. Robinson will leave for the Palestinian territories shortly after that. While she is there, he says, she also hopes to visit a number of other states in the region.

/// DIAS ACT ///

There's no program yet for the visit. I imagine she will be stressing the question of how integrating a human-rights perspective into the search for peace in the region can be achieved, how we can integrate the human-rights perspective. The High Commissioner believes that only in integrating such a perspective can we achieve a durable and sustainable peace in the Middle East.

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The resolution approved by the commission also requests that several special human-rights investigators go to the region to conduct separate, independent inquiries. (Signed)

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