File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2002/postcolonial.0204, message 208


Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 10:47:15 -0400
Subject: FW: Israel to bury dead from 'massacre' camp
From: cs <christina.sharpe-AT-tufts.edu>





Israel to bury dead from 'massacre' camp

12 April 2002

Israel will bury Palestinians killed in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin,
the army said today, prompting Palestinian allegations that Israel had
killed hundreds of civilians and was trying to hide the bodies.

Army spokesman Brigadier General Ron Kitrey denied the Palestinian
accusations of a cover­up, but said collection and burial of the bodies in
Jenin would begin today.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refused to give US Secretary of State
Colin Powell a deadline for the end of the offensive in the Palestinian
terriroties. 

He said at a joint news conference with General Powell after their
much­awaited meeting: "Israel is conducting a war against the Palestinian
infrastructure of terror and hopes to end it as soon as possible."

Gen. Powell said the United States understood Israel's need to defend
itself, but added that "eventually the parties must talk, the parties must
have negotiations." He said he did not come away from the meeting with a
timetable for an Israeli withdrawal.

He is expected to meet Yasser Arafat tomorrow at his headquarters in
Ramallah, where the Palestinian leader has been confined with aides to three
rooms by Israeli forces who invaded the compound two weeks ago.

In Gaza City, an effigy of Gen. Powell was burned in an anti­U.S. protest by
thousands of Palestinians.

Brig. Kitrey told Israel Army radio today that hundreds of Palestinians had
been killed in Jenin. But the army subsequently contacted news organisations
to say that he meant hundreds had been killed and wounded.

He said the bodies from the Jenin fighting would be buried at a special
cemetery in the Jordan Valley where Lebanese fighters killed in cross­border
clashes have been buried in unmarked graves.

"The terrorists we found with guns we are going to bury in what we call the
enemy cemetery site," he told The Associated Press. "The civilians we will
try to give back to the Palestinians."

He alleged Palestinian Red Crescent officials have rejected an Israeli offer
to retrieve bodies from the camp. However, Dr. Hussam Sharkawi of the Red
Crescent said that for several days the Israeli army has blocked his group
from entering the camp.

"This is part of their disinformation campaign to hide something," Dr
Sharkawi said. 

The Red Cross also said it and other aid groups, including the Red Crescent,
had been denied permission by Israel to enter the camp. The organization's
communication coordinator, Alexandra Matijevic, said the Red Cross has been
shut out of the camp for three days and has been unable to confirm
conflicting casualty claims.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat repeated accusations the Israelis
were trying to cover up the killing of civilians. "They want to hide their
crimes, the bodies of the little children and women," he told The Associated
Press. 

Mr Erekat said that Gen. Powell should visit the Jenin camp and witness the
"war crimes." 

Though the army reported sporadic fighting in the Jenin area, the last
significant pocket of gunmen surrendered to Israeli troops on Thursday.

Jenin effectively has been closed to journalists during most of the
fighting, so allegations of massacres and mass burials could not be
independently confirmed. Journalists who entered the camp briefly Thursday
saw no bodies, and the army would not explain where they were.




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