- UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)
- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported on Friday that Israel has
failed to comply with a General Assembly demand that it halt construction
of a barrier cutting deep into Palestinian West Bank lands.
-
- The official finding lays the groundwork for the Palestinians
to return to the 191-nation assembly to seek further action against Israel,
probably next week.
-
- "I have concluded that Israel is not in compliance
with the assembly's demand that it 'stop and reverse the construction of
the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,"' said the report,
requested by the assembly in an Oct. 21 resolution.
-
- Annan acknowledged Israel's "right and duty to protect
its people against terrorist attacks."
-
- But doing so by building what Israel calls a "security
fence" that veers as much as 13 miles from its 1967 border with the
West Bank would violate international law and increase Palestinian suffering,
he said.
-
- It also "could damage the longer-term prospects
for peace by making the creation of an independent, viable and contiguous
Palestinian state more difficult," his report concluded.
-
- The General Assembly voted 144-4 with 12 abstentions
last month to adopt a resolution demanding that Israel halt construction
of the barrier. Only the United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands and
Micronesia voted "no."
-
- Palestinian U.N. envoy Nasser al-Kidwa vowed that if
Israel failed to comply, he would ask the assembly to adopt a second resolution
calling on the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion
on whether the barrier was illegal.
-
- 'DEEPLY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE ACT'
-
- The court, a branch of the United Nations, judges disputes
between countries and is based in the Netherlands.
-
- U.S. diplomats and some European Union states oppose
bringing the U.N. court into the dispute, arguing this could further politicize
the Middle East peace process and prejudge issues better left to later
negotiations.
-
- But Annan said building the wall at a time Israel and
the Palestinians are being asked to follow the "road map" peace
plan could be seen only as "a deeply counterproductive act."
-
- Israel says it needs the barrier of concrete, razor wire,
ditches and electric fences to stop suicide attacks that have killed over
450 people in three years.
-
- Palestinians call it a bid to annex land taken in the
1967 Middle East war and say the Israelis must stop construction if they
are serious about the road map.
-
- Washington, Israel's closest ally, cut nearly $290 million
this week from a multibillion-dollar package of loan guarantees after President
Bush said the Jewish state should not prejudice peace talks with "walls
and fences."
-
- But Israeli officials brushed off the gesture as symbolic.
-
- Annan's report said the barrier would cut off 16.6 percent
of West Bank land, home to 17,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and 220,000
in East Jerusalem. "If the full route is completed, another 160,000
Palestinians will live in enclaves, areas where the barrier almost completely
encircles communities and tracts of land."
-
- Under Israeli army orders, Palestinians living between
the barrier and the 1967 border must obtain special permits to remain in
their homes while Israeli residents can move freely in and out of those
areas.
-
- Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
|
