24 April 2002
UN Mission Continues to Plan for Departure to Jenin Camp
(Security Council expects Israel's full cooperation) (720)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The United Nations is continuing to plan for the
fact-finding mission to investigate events in the Jenin refugee camp
despite Israeli objections to the composition of the mission.
"We're confident that the team is going to go and we are going to be
able to resolve our differences -- if they are differences -- with
Israel," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said April 24. "Getting the
Israelis and the Palestinians to agree on anything is not easy, but we
would like them both to agree that this is going to be a fair and
impartial study."
Commenting on a meeting Secretary General Kofi Annan had with Israeli
Ambassador Yehuda Lancry on April 23 at which the Israeli envoy
expressed objections to the mission, Eckhard said that "the secretary
general declined to discuss members of the team. He feels it was his
team to name. He feels that the Israelis indicated to him in advance
that they would cooperate with whatever team he named and those are
his people. And that's the end of the discussion."
Lancry asked that the mission be delayed until the team's composition
and scope of action, among other issues, could be clarified and asked
that representatives from Israel brief the UN. The ambassador told
journalists after the meeting that Israel wanted to "defer, to delay"
the mission until the panel could be made "more balanced."
Annan agreed to delay the mission's arrival in the Middle East from
Thursday, April 25, to Saturday, April 27, to allow the consultations
to take place, the spokesman said.
Representatives of Israel's Defense Ministry, Foreign Ministry, and
the Israeli Defense Forces are now scheduled to meet with UN officials
on April 25, Eckhard said. The meeting will be chaired by
Undersecretary General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast and
will include representatives from UN peacekeeping operations and the
Office of Legal Affairs. The secretary general will not participate in
the meeting.
Eckhard said that if out of the UN-Israeli discussions there are
suggestions for additional experts, the secretary general will discuss
with Martti Ahtisaari, the head of the fact-finding mission, the
possibility of adding them to the mission.
"The secretary general said clearly that the mandate of the team was
Security Council resolution 1405 of 19th of April. While he would not
discuss his choice of team members [with the Israeli Ambassador] the
secretary general did not rule out adding additional experts that
might be deemed necessary," Eckhard said.
"The idea is to have all the expertise we need to do a fair
assessment," the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland, arrived in
Geneva with the military advisor to the team, General William Nash, a
retired US Army Major General who commanded peacekeeping units in
Bosnia and Kosovo. The team -- which also includes former UN High
Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata and Cornelio Sommaruga, the
former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross --
then met with other experts of the approximately 20-person team who
have been arriving in Geneva, Eckhard reported.
The spokesman said that two additional members of the team were named:
Tyge Lehmann, a legal adviser for the Danish government and a human
rights expert, and a forensic medical advisor, Helena Ranta, from the
University of Helsinki.
"The fact finding team will continue to prepare its mission and the
team is expected to be in the Middle East by this Saturday," Eckhard
said.
After Lancry's meeting with the secretary general, the Security
Council held private consultations on the Middle East. Council
President Ambassador Sergey Lavrov of Russia said in a statement to
the press afterwards that council members "fully supported the
secretary general's efforts" to implement resolution 1405.
"They expect its expeditious implementation and full cooperation of
Israel with the secretary general and with the fact-finding team," the
president said.
Lavrov said that council members were also seriously concerned for the
safety of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. "They
emphasized that there must be no harm to him or others in the
compound. The siege must be lifted and Chairman Arafat must have full
freedom of movement to fully carry out his functions," he said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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