UN Sees No Delay in Jenin Mission as Talks Go On
Thu Apr 25, 9:17 PM ET
By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Delicate U.N.-Israeli talks on the scope of a U.N. fact-finding mission to the Jenin refugee camp broke off overnight Thursday but the United Nations (news - web sites) insisted there would be no delay in the mission.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) "expects the fact-finding team to arrive in the region by the end of the week, as originally planned," said Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov, the Security Council president for April.
He spoke to reporters after a top Annan aide briefed the council on the status of the talks, aimed at clarifying the controversial mission's mandate and makeup.
Neither side would comment on how the talks had gone in their first day. They were due to resume at 9 a.m. EDT on Friday.
"It was very cordial but there are still some issues that are pending," was all Israeli envoy Aaron Jacob would say.
Seeking to keep the heat on Israel to let the mission go forward, the Security Council scheduled fresh consultations on the situation for Friday afternoon.
The council's 15 member nations "expressed the hope" the mission would be in place by the end of the week, Lavrov said.
The Jenin camp was the scene of eight days of intense fighting between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli forces sent in after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings.
The Palestinians accuse the Israeli troops of a massacre in which hundreds died, but Israel says 48 people were killed in Jenin while it lost 23 soldiers.
Israel had called for the talks after initially consenting to the mission, then threatening to block it, apparently fearing any conclusions would add to a worldwide outcry at the devastation in the West Bank camp.
Annan postponed the trip for a day or two but said his team, led by the former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, planned to be in the region Saturday.
U.N. SEES NO FURTHER DELAY
Also on the U.N. team are Cornelio Sommaruga, the Swiss former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Sadako Ogata of Japan, the former U.N. high commissioner for refugees.
U.N. Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast briefed the council behind closed doors after the talks ended for the day. While giving no indication of whether there had been any progress, he stated that Annan "is expecting no further delay for the team," said a Western diplomat who attended the briefing.
Israeli officials said their goals for the talks were to expand the mission team by adding counter-terrorism and military experts and ensuring that it looks into militant organizations that used the camp as a base for suicide bombings as well as the Israeli military assault on Jenin.
Israel also wants the U.N. report to present facts and no conclusions, especially ones that could result in prosecutions.
Shortly before the talks began, the United Nations agreed to an Israeli request to add two more military officers to the team in addition to retired U.S. Army Gen. William Nash.
"It was decided that Gen. Nash will be assisted by two military staff officers and more experts will be brought on board as needed," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said after video consultation Thursday with the U.N. team, now in Geneva.
The Israeli delegation at the talks was led by Moshe Kochnovski, deputy director-general in the Defense Ministry. Others were Alan Baker, a Foreign Ministry legal adviser, Daniel Reizner, a lawyer in the Israeli army's prosecutor's office, and Cabinet Secretary Gideon Saar.
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