The US-based Human Rights Watch has called for a criminal investigation into Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's role in the Sabra and Shatilla massacres in south Lebanon.
The call came as Sharon began a visit to the US, a few days after a BBC documentary strongly recommended that he be indicted for war crimes against humanity for his role in the massacres.
“There is abundant evidence that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed on a wide scale in the Sabra and Shatilla massacre, but to date, not a single individual has been brought to justice,” said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.
“President Bush should urge Prime Minister Sharon to cooperate with any investigation,” he said in a statement, published on the organization’s website.
As defense minister, Ariel Sharon had overall responsibility over the Israeli army and allowed Phalangist militias to enter the camps and terrorize the residents for three days.
Human Rights Watch said that the United States had a substantial interest in the case because the Israeli occupation of West Beirut followed written US assurances that Palestinians remaining there would be safe, as part of an arrangement that saw the evacuation of Palestine Liberation Organization forces.
The debate in Europe erupted following a BBC documentary on the Sabra and Shatilla massacre, which was aired in the United Kingdom on June 17. The day after, survivors of the massacre lodged a complaint against Sharon in a Belgian court.
During the BBC program, Morris Draper, the US Special Envoy to the Middle East at the time, said that US officials were horrified when told Sharon had allowed Phalange militias into West Beirut and the camps “because it would be a massacre.”
He told the BBC that after the killings began he cabled then defense minister Sharon, telling him, “You must stop the slaughter…. The situation is absolutely appalling. They are killing children. You have the field completely under your control and are therefore responsible for that area.”
The Kahan Commission (named after the president of the Israeli Supreme Court) that investigated the massacre in 1983 concluded that “Minister of Defense [Sharon] bears personal responsibility” and should “draw the appropriate personal conclusions arising out of the defects revealed with regard to the manner in which he discharged the duties of his office.”
The commission recommended that then prime minister Menachem Begin remove Sharon from office if he did not resign.
Sharon did resign as minister of defense, though he subsequently assumed other cabinet positions. Annexes of the commission report have not yet been made public, and it is not known if they contain additional information specific to Sharon´s involvement.
Human Rights Watch said that “the findings and conclusions of the Kahan Commission, however authoritative in terms of investigation and documentation of the facts surrounding the massacre, could not substitute for proceedings in a criminal court in Israel or elsewhere that would bring to justice those responsible for the killing of hundreds of innocent civilians.”
Human Rights Watch “recognizes that Sharon, in his capacity as prime minister, enjoys temporary immunity; however, that should not preclude an active criminal investigation into his conduct whether in Israel, Belgium, or elsewhere.”
“Criminal investigations and prosecutions must include militia leaders like Elie Hobeika in Lebanon who carried out these atrocities,” Megally said.
“But the Israeli government also has a responsibility to conduct an investigation into the actions of its own high officials who knew –- and, in any case, certainly should have known -- that atrocities were likely to occur and did not act promptly to stop them once they knew the killing had started.” – Albawaba.com
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