WAR CRIMES TRIALS FOR SHARON ET AL.?

MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 7/27:
In the end the Israelis are likely to find a way to deal with this new situation. They have great resources at their disposal when it comes to the media, intelligence information, lobbying capabilities, help from key governments in the US, UK, and Germany. They have a long history of twisting things to their advantage one way or another. And those opposed to them have a long reputation for much the opposite in fact. Even so, this article in today's Guardian highlights just what the new situation has become at the moment. And we will probably have more to say about all this soon.

ISRAEL REVEALS ITS FEAR OF WAR CRIMES TRIALS
By Suzanne Goldenberg in Jerusalem

The Guardian - Friday July 27, 2001: Israel is drafting a map of countries where its leaders - including the prime minister, Ariel Sharon - could face trial for war crimes, a government official said yesterday.

The extraordinary exercise is part of an effort to protect Israeli officials from the trend in Europe of expanding war crimes laws to include foreign nationals and atrocities committed abroad. Spain led the change by seeking to try the former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet. Belgium and the Netherlands have since followed suit.

The Israeli contingency plan follows reports yesterday that Tel Aviv has hired a Belgian lawyer for Mr Sharon, who will try to persuade judges in Brussels to throw out a complaint seeking his prosecution over the massacre of Palestinian refugees nearly 20 years ago.

Israel fears that the pending lawsuit could rebound on its diplomats and military and intelligence personnel.

The Belgian courts are also reportedly considering complaints against Israel's army chief, Shaul Mofaz, and the air force commander, Dan Halutz, for the death of Palestinian civilians during the current 10-month-old uprising.

However, Belgium is also considering amendments to the law that would rule out the prosecution of serving leaders.

A foreign ministry official told Israeli radio: "The ministry advises all leaders in Israel not to visit nations whose legal systems are liable to cause them inconvenience and embarrassment."

The notion that officials could be vulnerable to war crimes law in Europe has caused alarm in Israel, which has in the past been a strenuous supporter of such legislation for trying Nazi fugitives.

Yesterday, Mr Sharon told Israeli radio there was "an attempt to harm Israel and the Jewish people, and thus there is activity to stop this danger".

Israel's foreign ministry decided to "map countries ... in light of requests from several current and retired security officials who wanted to know whether they might be arrested or prosecuted while travelling abroad," a ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nachshon, said.

"We feel the need to map out those countries whose jurisdictional competence covers acts and citizens outside the country, to avoid an undue politicisation of international criminal law."

Mr Nachshon declined to say which countries were on the map - although they are likely to include Spain, Britain, and Belgium - and said there was no undue alarm about expanded war crimes legislation.

"We just want to point out that those laws may be misused by certain elements," he said.

Other foreign ministry officials told the Ha'aretz newspaper: "This is hot now because of the delegitimisation of Israel and Zionism. But if the peace talks resume between us and the Palestinians, the wave will pass."

Two recent events illustrate the potential for embarrassment of a more proactive approach by European courts.

Last month, 28 survivors of the slaughter in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps filed a complaint against Mr Sharon, accusing him of responsibility for the killing of hundreds of Palestinians by Lebanese Christian militias in 1982.

An official Israeli inquiry at the time found Mr Sharon, who was then minister of defence, "personally responsible" for the massacre by failing to anticipate the murderous rampage by Israel's allies in Lebanon.

It is uncertain whether the Belgian case will go ahead, but after studiously ignoring the complaint for weeks, the prime minister's office, justice and foreign ministries are now studying the matter.

In Denmark, meanwhile, there has been a furore over Israel's choice of ambassador to Copenhagen, the former chief of its internal intelligence service, Carmi Gillon.

Mr Gillon admits authorising the torture of Palestinian detainees during his tenure at the Shin Bet from 1995-1996, and leftwing Danish legislators want him prosecuted under international conventions against torture.

The Danish justice ministry said on Wednesday that Mr Gillon would be afforded diplomatic immunity when he takes up his post next month.

But Mr Sharon's personal attorney, Dov Weisglass, said yesterday that the row over the appointment was instructive in showing the "extent to which there is a powerful danger to every Israeli official who at any stage of his life was connected to security events here in Israel".

He told army radio: "There is no limit to this, nor for most offences defined as war crimes is there a statue of limitations, so this can relate even to the war of independence [in 1948] or before."

• Three bombs went off in the West Bank near Israeli vehicles yesterday, hours after Palestinians, threatening revenge, buried a militant killed in an Israeli missile attack.

No one was hurt in the blasts near Jenin. A bomb exploded near a bus carrying Israeli schoolgirls, settlers said. The bus had armour plating, which prevented injuries.

 

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