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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (25877)	4/18/2002 10:38:33 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 281500

Jenin camp 'horrific beyond belief' The BBC Thursday, 18 April, 2002, 13:52 GMT 14:52 UK news.bbc.co.uk A UN envoy has said that the devastation left by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp is "horrific beyond belief". I think I can speak for all in the UN delegation in saying that we are shocked Terje Roed-Larsen Terje Roed-Larsen, who toured the West Bank refugee camp on Thursday, said it was "morally repugnant" that Israel had not allowed rescue teams in after the fighting. He called for the full withdrawal of Israeli forces and the lifting of a curfew in the area. Palestinians claim hundreds of bodies are buried beneath the rubble, but Israel says the numbers of dead are far fewer. An independent forensic expert says evidence suggests that a massacre has taken place. Roed-Larsen called for a full Israeli withdrawal Israel pulled its forces out of Jenin town and part of the refugee camp before dawn on Thursday. Officials said they were also withdrawing from Nablus and that over the next three days troops would leave most West Bank areas apart from Ramallah and Bethlehem. The BBC's Richard Miron, just outside Jenin, said Israeli forces had pulled back but remained close by. Search and rescue He said the UN envoy was highly regarded in the region and his criticism would put more pressure on the Israelis to fully withdraw. Mr Roed-Larsen said the top priority was to bring in search-and-rescue teams. The only rescue efforts currently under way are residents digging though the ruins looking for survivors. "It is totally destroyed, it looks like an earthquake has hit it," he said. Aid agencies now have access to Jenin "I am watching two brothers pull their father from the ruins, the stench of death is horrible. We are seeing a 12-year-old boy being dug out, totally burned," he said. "We have expert people here who have been in war zones and earthquakes and they say they have never seen anything like it," he added. Mr Roed-Larsen, who is the UN's Special Co-ordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, was visiting the camp with Red Cross and UN workers. He added: "It is totally unacceptable that the government of Israel for 11 days did not allow search and rescue teams to come." Israel 'concerned' Israel invaded the Jenin camp on 3 April, saying it was a hotbed of Palestinian militancy and declaring it a closed military zone. Palestinian claims of an Israeli massacre in the camp have been denied, although British forensic expert Prof Derrick Pounder has said that the evidence points to large numbers of civilian dead. Prof Pounder is part of an Amnesty International team granted access to Jenin. Click here to see town-by-town update Danny Ayalon, the chief foreign policy adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said that Israel shared the humanitarian concerns and was already allowing some aid teams to operate. The partial pull-out by Israel came a day after the departure of US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who left the region without achieving a ceasefire or a full withdrawal of Israeli troops. Israel says troops will continue to surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where a group of armed Palestinians are among more than 200 people who have been holed up for more than two weeks. Truce talks cancelled The first face-to-face talks between negotiators trying to end the stand-off were cancelled on Thursday, after the Palestinian delegation was told that a third party, such as the Red Cross or church leaders, would not be allowed to take part. Israel says it will also continue to surround Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah, where it believes the man responsible for the killing of the Israeli tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi, is hiding. However, Palestinian sources said that Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher met Mr Arafat in his battered headquarters on Thursday. The Jordanian news agency said Mr Arafat's personal physician went with Mr Muasher to give the Palestinian leader a check-up. The Israelis have so far allowed only Mr Powell, US envoy Anthony Zinni and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher to visit Mr Arafat.