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Tutu distressed by Israel move
11/12/2006 16:42 - (SA)
Geneva - Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu said on Monday that the Israeli government's failure to permit a fact-finding mission to investigate Israeli-Palestinian violence was "very distressing".
"We find the lack of co-operation by the Israeli government very distressing, as well as its failure to allow the missing timely passage to Israel," said Tutu after UN officials said Israel had blocked his UN fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Mark Regev said on Monday that no final decision has been made.
"Israel heard that they decided not to come. We had not given them a negative response, our final decision was pending," said Regev.
"At times not making a decision is making a decision," said Tutu.
He said he had accepted the mission on behalf of the UN human rights council "at short notice".
Investigating killings
"We cancelled important commitments to make ourselves available for this task and to submit a report by mid-December to the council," said Tutu, adding that to take up the mission he had left the bedside of his wife, who was in a hospital following a knee operation.
Because of the failure of Israel to approve the mission in time, the mission team had to cancel its appointments in Israel and the Gaza Strip with people involved in the conflict.
Tutu was to begin leading a six-member team during the past weekend in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun to investigate the killings of 19 civilians in an Israeli artillery barrage last month.
But Israel refused to grant the South African anti-apartheid campaigner the necessary travel clearance, said officials in two separate UN departments who spoke on condition of anonymity before Tutu spoke.
Tutu's team was supposed to report its findings to the UN human rights council by Friday.
It is unclear if the Jewish state will allow the fact-finding mission to take place at a later date.
Weeklong incursion
Israeli officials have expressed concern that Tutu's mission was only entrusted with investigating alleged human rights violations committed by Israel, and not also by Palestinian militants.
The 47-nation council authorised the mission last month, asking Tutu to assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors and make recommendations on ways to protect Palestinian civilians against further Israeli attacks.
The shelling, which Israel said was unintended, came after its troops wound up a weeklong incursion meant to curb Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from the town.
Palestinian militants frequently use Beit Hanoun as a staging ground for their rocket attacks on Israel.
"We had a problem not with the personalities, we had a problem with the institution," said Regev.
"We saw a situation whereby the human rights mechanism of the UN was being cynically exploited to advance an anti-Israel agenda.
This would do the Israelis, the Palestinians and peace in the Middle East no good at all. This would also have done nothing to serve the interest of human rights."
- AP
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