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Amnesty Inernational: Israeli Crackdown May be War Crime

01-Nov-00
Amnesty International (as carried by AFP)
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Israeli security forces might be guilty of war crimes against Palestinian protesters, human rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday. An Amnesty delegation which just returned from Israel and the Palestinian territories told a London press conference that soldiers were shooting unarmed demonstrators, many of them children, in breach of domestic and international rules of engagement. The fatal shootings amounted to unlawful killing, delegate Claudio Cordone said, repeating Amnesty's calls for an independent international investigation to determine whether individuals should face trial for war crimes. Although the group had no time to examine individual alleged cases, Cordone said, there was "a pattern of gross human rights violations that may amount to war crimes." He conceded that Israelis were coming under fire from Palestinians on some occasions, but added that in many other cases, they were simply facing a hail of stones. Opening fire in such circumstances was a clear breach of Israeli policing rules, which state that lethal force should only be used where there is an immediate threat to life. "In answer to any form of violence from children, the Israeli forces have to use proportionate force," Cordone said. "Therefore if a child is throwing stones but not posing any other risk, you do not shoot him." Israeli use of attack helicopters to strike at Palestinian targets was the clearest breach of the principle of lethal force as a last resort, he added. He also said Palestinian security forces had told the Amnesty team that it was impractical for them to prevent children taking part in the demonstrations and that they had given up trying to do so. Cordone also renewed Amnesty's call for an investigation into the lynching of Israeli soldiers pulled from a Palestinian police station by protesters. Amnesty has sent two delegations to probe killings in the wave of violence that has swept the region since late September -- LONDON (AFP)