UN Envoy on Jenin's "Horrific" Destruction Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit ["Horrific" ? Undoubtedly. But "shocking" ??? Why ever is anyone shocked? It was obvious weeks ago that this was precisely what Sharon was planning, and considerably less horrific than he had hoped, to be sure. -- NY Transfer] source - Bill Koehnlein Financial Times - April 19, 2002 http://www.ft.com UN Envoy Calls Jenin Destruction "Horrific" by Roula Khalaf in Jenin and Edward Alden in Washington The UN's special envoy to the Middle East on Thursday sharply criticised Israel's military offensive in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, saying conditions he found there were "horrific and shocking beyond belief". Terje Roed-Larsen, the first senior international envoy to visit the camp, saw catastrophic destruction as grief-stricken people used hands and shovels to search for relatives buried under the rubble of bulldozed buildings. No objective can justify producing such suffering for the population," Mr Roed-Larsen told the Financial Times. "Whatever the purpose was, the effect is collective punishment of a whole society." The comments from the UN's special co-ordinator for the peace process contrasted with US President George W. Bush's praise on Thursday for Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, as a "man of peace". The president claimed success for the recent mission of his secretary of state, Colin Powell, saying he was pleased by steps Israel had taken to pull out of some smaller West Bank towns and that it was meeting the US demand for a full withdrawal. There were reports on Friday that Israeli troops had completed their pullout from Jenin and the refugee camp, as well as the West Bank city of Qalqilya. Mr Bush also endorsed Israel's continued siege at the Ramallah compound of Yassir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, and the conditions the government had set for ending the blockade. But the president also said the Palestinian leader had shown flexibility by condemning terrorist attacks. "Now we will hold him to account," Mr Bush added. Jack Straw, UK foreign secretary, on Thursday called for an investigation by an international organisation like the Red Cross of Israel's onslaught at Jenin. The Israeli army on Thursday said it had started to withdraw from the towns of Nablus and Jenin. The curfew in Jenin, lifted on Thursday morning, was, however, re-imposed in the afternoon and dozens of tanks remained stationed on the edge of the town. Mr Roed-Larsen said denying international humanitarian organisations access to the camp until this week was "utterly unacceptable" and "at best problematic from an international and humanitarian law point of view". He called on Israel to immediately end its military occupation and allow full humanitarian access. Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general, on Thursday urged Israel and the Security Council to authorise a large international peacekeeping force to stem the violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Neither the US nor Israel favour the idea. ********************************************************************* "The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated." --José Martí ********************************************************************* The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory http://www.toplab.org ********************************************************************* ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytact-04.19.02-04:03:38-7705