Author:
Publication: CNN News
Date: November 1, 2002
URL: http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/11/01/human.rights.palestinians/index.html
Those who plan and carry out suicide
bombings that deliberately target civilians are guilty of crimes against
humanity and must be brought to justice, a leading humanitarian watchdog
group said in a report released Friday.
The 170-page report from New York-
based Human Rights Watch assessed the suicide bombing operations of Hamas,
Islamic Jihad, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine (PFLP), the groups that have claimed responsibility for most
recent suicide bombings. The report says the leaders of such groups should
face criminal investigation.
Human Rights Watch also said the
Palestinian Authority and its president, Yasser Arafat, have failed to
do all they can to stop suicide attacks or bring the perpetrators to justice,
thus contributing to "an atmosphere of impunity" for such crimes.
"The people who carry out suicide
bombings are not martyrs, they're war criminals, and so are the people
who help plan such attacks," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human
Rights Watch. "The scale and systematic nature of these attacks sets them
apart from other abuses committed in times of conflict. They clearly fall
under the category of crimes against humanity."
A Hamas political leader disagreed.
"This report is neglecting all the
Arab Muslim scholars who are not recognizing these operations as a suicide.
[It] is accepting the [terminology of] Israel, describing such operation
as suicide operation," said Mahmoud El Zahar. "This operation is not suicide,
these are martyrs."
The Israeli government called the
report "very important" because it concludes that the Palestinian Authority
could have done more to stop suicide attacks and rebuts the justifications
for those attacks.
"I think this is a report that has
some very important lessons for our region and for the world at large,"
said Daniel Taub, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. "The report
is absolutely categorical that the Palestinian Authority could have and
should have (stopped suicide attacks). It had means, it had obligation,
in fact instead of stopping suicide attackers, many Palestinian leaders
(were) actually praising them."
He added: "What is also very important
is that the report goes through so-called justifications for terrorism
and dismisses them one by one, makes it absolutely clear that it doesn't
matter if you claim that you are fighting for national liberation, if you
claim you are fighting in settlements or in occupied territories, and if
you think people you are fighting are doing reserve duty or whatever --
every time you kill a civilian -- that is terrorism, it is unjustified,
it is a war crime, it is a crime against humanity."
Human Rights Watch called on all
Palestinian armed groups to halt their attacks on civilians "immediately
and unconditionally," and urged the Palestinian Authority to make sure
those responsible for such attacks are brought to justice.
A Palestinian Authority Cabinet
Minister Ghassan Khattibsaid that is a difficult task.
"The P.A. did everything they could.
They were arresting some of those activists, but politically speaking we
have to understand the situation where Israel is committing all these crimes
against Palestinian civilians," Khattib said. "The persons we are talking
about, who were responding with these suicide activities, were unfortunately
perceived as heroes in the eyes of 80 percent of the Palestinian population."
Principles of international law
require that those in authority be held accountable when people under their
control commit war crimes or crimes against humanity. Leaders who order
such crimes, fail to take action to prevent them or fail to punish the
perpetrators are also responsible for the crimes, the group said.
The report noted that top leaders
of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have "openly espoused, encouraged, or endorsed
suicide bombing attacks against Israeli civilians and indicated that they
have the capacity to stop them from happening."
Specifically, the group said Hamas'
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Khalid Mish'al and Islamic Jihad's Ramadan Shalah
must face criminal investigation for their roles in such crimes. Criminal
investigation is also warranted for the PFLP and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades,
it said.
Human Rights Watch based its report,
"Erased in a Moment: Suicide Bombing Attacks against Israeli Civilians,"
on interviews with P.A. officials and members of the armed groups, and
P.A. internal documents it said were made public by Israel.
The report criticized the Palestinians
for arguing that Israeli actions -- like destroying P.A. security installations
-- has undermined its ability to act.
"Even when that capacity was largely
intact," the report said, "the P.A. took no effective action to bring to
justice those who incited, planned, or assisted in carrying out bombings
and other attacks on Israeli civilians."
The P.A. instead, the report said,
often let the perpetrators back onto the streets soon afterward.
The justification used by armed
groups and their supporters, which holds that Israeli attacks that kill
injure Palestinian civilians are reason to carry out attacks on Israeli
civilians, also holds no water, the report said.
"The prohibition against targeting
civilians doesn't depend on the behavior of one's adversary," Roth said.
"Even in the face of Israeli violations of international law, Palestinian
armed groups must refrain from deliberate attacks against civilians."
The same group published a report
in May on the Israeli military operation in Jenin, criticizing Israeli
forces for using Palestinian civilians as human shields through a sweep
of the refugee camp.
While Israeli officials took issue
with that 48-page report, the group also said it did not find evidence
to back up charges the Israel Defense Forces had committed a massacre,
as alleged, that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians.
"Armed conflicts often involve discrepancies
of power between adversaries," said Roth. "Allowing those discrepancies
to justify attacking civilians would create an immense loophole in the
protections of international humanitarian law."
To the argument by armed Palestinian
groups that their Israeli targets are legitimate because all Israelis are
reservists, and therefore are not civilians, Human Rights Watch said reservists
are only combatants while on active duty. Some armed groups have also said
residents of Israeli settlements have forfeited their civilian status,
but the group said people living there are entitled to protection so long
as they are not participating in armed conflict.
The report also included recommendations
for the Israeli government, including the suggestion that its military
not target Palestinian Security Services in reprisal for suicide attacks
-- instead arguing the Palestinian police should be given an opportunity
to do its job to stop them.
