Israel threatens to block UN Jenin camp probe

JERUSALEM - Israel threatened to block a UN mission to probe its devastating assault on the Jenin refugee camp, but opened the way for European envoys to visit besieged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat yesterday.

Israel told the United Nations it had changed its mind and would not admit the fact-finding team to Jenin unless it included military and counter-terrorism experts.

Palestinians, who have alleged a massacre in the camp, responded angrily. Mohammed Rashid, an aide to Arafat, said the Palestinians were not surprised by Israel's refusal to cooperate.

"It shows that Israel has something to hide concerning the atrocities and war crimes committed at the camp," he said.

Israel's demands on the Jenin probe were likely to touch off a flurry of diplomacy to put the UN mission back on track.

Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, was to lead the team, which included Cornelio Sommaruga, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Sadako Ogata, the former UN high commissioner for refugees.

Ahtisaari said on Tuesday a US military adviser, retired Major-General William Nash, would be a full member of the team.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said experts might be added to the team "as necessary" and agreed to postpone its departure by a day or two. He said in a statement he still expected the mission to be in the region by Saturday.

Palestinians have said hundreds of civilians may have been killed in the camp, including many whose homes were shelled or bulldozed. Israel has said it killed only a few dozen gunmen.

Twenty-three Israeli soldiers died in the camp, scene of the fiercest fighting of the West Bank offensive Israel launched on March 29 after suicide bombings that killed scores of Israelis.

"We believe the mandate of the fact-finding team should also cover, not only military operation of Israel, but the terrorist network which has flourished in the Jenin refugee camp and which, in fact, generated the Israeli military operation," Israel's UN ambassador Yehuda Lancry said in New York.

As Israel raised objections concerning the UN effort to clarify events in Jenin, it gave the go-ahead for European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to visit Arafat, after denying him access to the Palestinian leader earlier this month.

Solana was due to visit Arafat's tank-ringed compound in Ramallah with the EU's Middle East envoy Miguel Moratinos and meet Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. It was not clear if the EU envoys would also meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has declared Arafat an enemy.

The foreign ministers of traditional foes Greece and Turkey, staging an unusual joint peace mission, were due to visit Arafat and Israeli leaders today.

- REUTERS

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