Israel fears its officials will be prosecuted
for war crimes Israel-Belgium, Politics,
9/27/2002
The judicial department at the Israeli foreign ministry has
expressed its fears that the political and military leaderships in
Israel will be exposed to a wave of judicial cases in the world
because of the military operations carried out by the Israeli forces
in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The department
indicated that one Palestinian woman "used" the presence of the
Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres in South Africa during the
Earth Summit to file a judiciary case against him calling for
preventing him from leaving South Africa, only after he pays a
financial guarantee and be fined by paying one million dollars as a
compensation for damages inflicted on her by the Israeli occupation
forces during the Intifada.
On the other hand, Amnesty
International announced its support for the request submitted by the
lawyers of the victims of Sabra and Shatilla massacres for trying
Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Belgian courts. The Belgian
courts ruled recently that its law which was issued in 1993 and
which authorizes the Belgian courts to try convicted persons of
committing war crimes any place of the world, is not applicable on
the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon because he is not on the
Belgian territories. Amnesty International said "As the world marks
the 20th anniversary of the massacres in the Sabra and Chatila
refugee camps in Beirut in September 1982, and on the eve of a
hearing on the case before the Belgian Court of Cassation, Amnesty
International today reiterates that the Belgian criminal justice
system has jurisdiction under international law to conduct a
criminal investigation into the killings."
Amnesty
International said "The hearing in Belgian Court of Cassation will
take place on 26 September 2002. On 18 June 2001, 23 survivors of
the 1982 killings in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps filed a
complaint alleging that Ariel Sharon, then Minister of Defence and
now Prime Minister of Israel, Amos Yaron, then Brigadier General
commanding Israeli forces, and other Israeli military officials and
members of the Phalange (Lebanese Christian militia), are
responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in
connection with these killings. ..In July 2001, Belgian juge
d'instruction (investigating magistrate), Patrick Collignon, opened
a criminal investigation into the 1982 killings. After an
intervention by a lawyer acting on behalf of Israel, the
investigating magistrate suspended the investigation on 7 September
2001. Following a hearing on 15 May 2002 about whether a Belgian
prosecutor may resume the suspended criminal investigation of the
1982 killings by the Phalange as well as allegations that the
Phalange had carried out large-scale "disappearances" with the
knowledge of or under the supervision of Israeli forces after the
killings, the Indictment Chamber of the Court of Appeal effectively
stopped the investigation of the case by Belgian
prosecutors."
Amnesty International said that it "hopes that
the Belgian Court of Cassation will review the previous ruling by a
Belgian court which led to the suspension of the criminal
investigation into the killings of at least 900 Palestinian
civilians in Sabra and Chatila. The investigation had been ordered
by a Belgian investigating magistrate...Should the Court of
Cassation fail to allow such an investigation to resume, Amnesty
International will be calling for a reform of the law. Belgian law
should continue to allow courts to investigate persons suspected of
war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide regardless of where
they are, and to seek their extradition to Belgium for trial based
on universal jurisdiction.
